


The Knight Slept

by Nhitori



Series: The Knight Slept [1]
Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Death warning definitely applies, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-24 15:30:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 28
Words: 39,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4925032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>● He that needs you now is gone. ●</p><p> The day the knight sleeps is the day the one they care for most will be doomed.</p><p>● It hurts, you know.●</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for a short first chapter, later ones will be longer I just wanted to post this as soon as possible.

There was a sort of simple consensus throughout the collective student body of the school mysteriously entitled "St. Pigeonation's" that Hiyoko Tosaka was not quite the average person. Her presence at the school was an utter enigma, seeing as it had traditionally been a prestigious (but not above issuing scholarships) prep school for particularly gifted young men. Were this another time, perhaps she would have been the only human at a school for birds. As it stood, she was the only girl at a school for boys.

And, beyond that fact, there was also the indisputably odd aspect that she lived in what could only be described as a cave. For what purpose was it described as a cave, and only as a cave? Well of course, because it was a cave. That was where she made her home and nobody really cared either way. She certainly seemed happy enough, and with an unknown benefactor helping her to pay her bills and get food, cheap as that food may be, nobody was particularly worried for her well-being either.

As far as anybirdie; Pardon, anybody, could reckon, Hiyoko was merely a very odd girl who had, when orphaned at a young age, chose the rough and tumble life of a hunter-gatherer over entering any sort of foster care. But then, disregarding that fact, it seemed she had received the same scholarship for her troubles as one Nageki Fujishiro. An effort endorsed, no doubt, by a brilliant and recently hired math teacher seeking some level of humbled nepotism towards the one he thought of as a little brother. To cover that aim, of course, scholarships had to be offered to other orphans; Hiyoko, surprisingly enough, among them.

It wasn't as if nobody was shocked when she arrived in the manner she did. To announce herself so brashly as "Hiyoko Tosaka, princess of the hunter-gatherers and prime candidate to be a dating sim protagonist!" and go on to her seat in a simple bliss was an action unexpected of most anyone; And for that matter, if her homeroom teacher was to glance back over her transcripts he might have remembered that he was expecting instead a prince of the hunter-gatherers in this enthusiastic girl, as were most of the faculty, despite there being no indication of gender on her papers. And of course, she couldn't be expelled now. The students, on the other hand, couldn't seem to care less, and her presumption of being a dating sim protagonist was, at least in this timeline, an entirely false one.

She had expected that, being the only girl in the school, she might receive quite a bit of romantic attention from pretty boys throwing themselves to her feet left and right. Whether to her dismay or not, she got basically none of that excluding a few distinct cases. There was Yuuya, who threw himself at everybody. Anghel, who seemed to think they shared some sort of karmic destiny. And of course, Ryouta, who she hardly considered a boy in the first place and who she'd known long before her enrollment in this school anyhow.

But then again, for all this Hiyoko-centric exposition, this never really was her story anyway. She was involved, of course, but it was to be properly noted as being the story of those who she met while at this school.

\-------------------  
Math class.

To say it made sense for math to be listed as an elective rather than as a core class would be a complete and utter lie. Hitori was continuously... no, something more than continuously. Eternally unsure if the school board was aware that math on some level, even if only simple arithmetic, was an important and necessary life skill rather than some intellectual eccentricity. Not that he would ever tell anybody of his annoyance of course, but it was certainly a matter of importance seeing as it caused him distress on what could only be called a day-to-day basis. Every day, so few students chose to come to math class. Every day, he grumbled as he heard the gym and music teachers discussing the brilliance of their own students in the teacher's lounge. 

Even his two regulars, Sakuya and Hiyoko, sometimes abandoned his class in favor of music. Not that he blamed them, exactly. Even his own 'little brother' wouldn't always choose math, often ducking out to cut class in the library when he noticed anyone else at all in the classroom. This left Hitori thinking on two possibilities. The first was that Nageki came to class when nobody else did just to humor him, the second was that Nageki had some issue with spending his elective around other people. Neither choice Hitori could assume was one he was particularly happy about.

Though the reason he wasn't the most upset he could be over losing the attention of the others was the singular shortfalling he consistently attributed to himself. Unlike a certain somebody he knew, he had quite a helping of pride in his own abilities and considered himself every bit the great mathematician they all said he was, excluding of course, this flaw. He was, for this flaw, something less than a sufficient teacher, given that it was terribly difficult to teach a class while asleep. Of course, he couldn't help it. He was just a drowsy person, and that was where the issue lay. Hiyoko could say as often as she wanted that she felt she was actually learning a lot despite his lack of conscious presence, but her test scores at times reflected otherwise.

Aside from that, however, he was still better suited for his job than that other person. At least he could be told he made a mistake without breaking down in tears, at least he considered the lack of enthusiasm students had for his math class a minor annoyance rather than the end of the world, at least he wasn't-

"Hiiiiiiitoooooooriiiiiiiiiii......" At least he wasn't Kazuaki. The very devil who had just come barging into the empty classroom while simultaneously partaking in one of his most common actions. Bawling. "I messed up on grading all my vocabulary tests! I, I mixed up penitent and persistent and marked all the right definitions for those two wrong!"

"So go back and mark them again." Hitori sighed, shaking his head and pressing the palm of his hand up against his temple, "The answer is very obvious."

"Marking them all again is such a pain though..." He sniffed, wiping his eyes with his scarf before shaking his head, nothing really having been done to stop the flow of tears, "I think dying would be a much better option..."

Hitori only rolled his eyes before stepping a bit closer to him, "God, Kazuaki. If you want to die so much, how about you surrender yourself to Doctor Iwamine for experimentation?"

"Noooo!" Kazuaki shook his head sharply, his voice high in protest, "If I did that then he would kill me! Or at least hurt me a lot! I don't want that..."

"Precisely." Hitori had once thought there was only one way to comfort somebody, and that expressing his annoyance was in no sense of the word, comforting. Kazuaki had changed his mind on that matter from the very moment they met, what with his irrational blathering on the matter of dying constantly.

"Hi-Hitori will you help me mark the quizzes again?" He was now sitting on Hitori's desk, and this time when he blotted his eyes with the scarf it could actually qualify as drying them.

"No." Kazuaki's face dropped again when Hitori answered him, but a smile prompty crossed his face again upon a continuation of that statement, "Is what I would normally say. But, I don't have any proficiency tests to grade at the moment, nor do I have any math assignments passed in from more than three students. So, luckily enough for you, I have the time. You can come to my house this afternoon and I'll help you out."

"Actually..." Kazuaki took a deep breath, having now calmed down thanks to Hitori's seemingly-cruel statements that, as usual, had rendered him somewhat stable, "I always go to your house, every time you help me..."

"You told me that your house is too much of a mess to have company." 

"Well... it was. But it's not anymore!" He pressed his hands together with a cheerful smile, "Ever since I met you, I've been getting better after all, and I was able to sometimes get up the energy to work on cleaning my apartment... it took a while but it's finally presentable... I hope..." His smile faded as he thought about it, looking like he was about to start crying again out of worry that he hadn't done a good enough job.

"What, have I really helped you that much?" Hitori questioned, furrowing his eyebrows together and crossing his arms.

"Yeah." Kazuaki sniffed, then nodded, "You're my best friend after all, and I mean. Helping people is what you do, Hitori. Just look at Nageki. You've helped him for years now and you're helping me too."

Hitori just stood there silently for a moment, then shrugged, "Yeah. I guess so." He chuckled under his breath, nodding, "I can't wait to see what you've done with the place."


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing that Hitori noticed upon his entrance to Kazuaki's apartment was that it was, in terms of Kazuaki's apartment, spotless. The walls and carpet were stained with the irremovable remnants of food buildup or mildew, and the ceiling had sustained so much water damage from the upstairs neighbors' habitual bathroom-born floodings that it appeared almost like Banksy himself had taken a paintbrush and a hammer to it in some brand-new and equally inane anti-communist statement; but that was just how things were, and there was nothing to be done about that.

For what Kazuaki could have done, it truly was quite the feat. For possibly the first time since he'd begun living on his own, his clothing was all in drawers or, Hitori assumed, the tall wicker hamper in the bathroom. The kitchen sink was free of dishes, excluding a bowl that was telling of Kazuaki's home diet; the leftover milk was stained with flecks of pastel color that were caused generally only by Lucky Charms. Or in this case, he noted as he glanced at the shelves, knockoff store brand Lucky Charms. The expiration date was nothing to sneeze at either, being long past, but the fact Kazuaki ate breakfast at all was admittedly an improvement over the past, as was the fact he prepared it (even with the minimal preparation of cereal) himself. 

It wasn't really all that long ago that he'd order pizza, or some other delivery takeout, most every night. So it was that Kazuaki really had improved, but that wasn't exactly by Hitori's merit alone. He had, as far as he could count, only filled two of the voids in a life that once resembled a black hole. One of those voids was friendship in any form; For somebody to have no friends whatsoever, to get along with nobody at all in the world, Hitori didn't quite blame him for being depressed even only over that. He'd grown up surrounded by people who walked the line between friends and family, so he could hardly even imagine being without them. Being without any one of them, even, had the potential of driving him mad.

Kazuaki didn't, though. He didn't get driven mad, only driven into a darkness so absolute that one person couldn't possibly fix it. To have a friend helped. For that friend to remind him of how much he valued his life by offering an option each time he threatened death helped even more, but again, that was only help. Getting his degree and becoming a teacher lifted him up some more, and every day he spent actually going out into the sun and doing things seemed to benefit his constitution, bit by bit.

Now if only he would stop being so fragile over every little thing, then he'd really be doing better. As it was, he wasn't living a happy life. He was barely living a functional one, and all Hitori could do was offer his support.

The second thing he noticed was the fact that Kazuaki was leaning back against a wall, shaking with nerves over what Hitori would say. Now, there was a difference between purposefully upsetting somebody and teaching them to grow a spine. Answering harmless questions with a blunt no was the latter, speaking anything but the truth in this moment would be the former, "It looks really good, actually. I have to admit that you did a great job here."

"What, really? You aren't just s-saying that?" Kazuaki questioned, starting to brighten up but still looking cautiously worried, as if expecting a more negative response.

"Kazuaki, you've known me for how long now?"

"Um... Two years..." 

"So you know that I'm not the sort of person to just say things to avoid hurting your feelings." He shrugged, smiling at him, "I mean, you do have to toughen up, but I'm not about to go being mean to you for no reason. I always tell the truth."

"Why is that anyway?" The worry seemed to melt away to curiosity now as Kazuaki pulled out the quizzes and set them down on a table by the window.

"I try not to lie because I feel like, if I was to start a habit of lying, I might lose hold of my good nature." He chuckled as if this was a joke, but an understanding fell that he was being serious nonetheless.

"I don't think that's true." Kazuaki shook his head, sitting down at the table and pulling out a pen to start correcting his mistake, (thankfully done in pencil initially) "I think that you're going to be good, no matter what. Even if you told lies."

"You're wrong." He spoke simply, and Kazuaki's face fell again, "Don't start crying on all the papers now, but you are wrong about that. If I ever lied to you... I would be no better than the worst people you'll ever meet. You're the type of person who shouldn't be lied to, and I'm the type of person who shouldn't lie. So let's get to marking these quizzes, right?" He almost fell asleep after saying that, but a response to his words woke him up.

"Right." Kazuaki nodded, swallowing his tears before starting to correct his corrections. Once he got started, he forgot all about the fact it was his mistake that made him need to do this in the first place. It wasn't until he'd almost finished that the work-born silence was broken, and that was by his stomach rather than any words, though words did soon follow the sound.

"You're hungry?" Hitori asked, having of course picked up on the sound in the otherwise quiet apartment; Apartment rather than room of course, given that the open floor plan left the only separate room from the rest, the bathroom.

"A little bit, but whatever, we need to get this done-" Kazuaki responded listlessly, but was cut off before he could even finish the last word.

"No, it's not whatever." Hitori sighed in aggravation, "Whatever would mean we kept working on this, then you sent me off when we were done, then you go to bed without having supper. Kazuaki, no matter what else you do, you need to eat."

"Do I really?" He questioned, voice falling further as he turned to look out of the window to his right, "Hey is... is that one of our students...?"

"Don't try to change the subject!" Hitori commanded in a simple tone. "Even if it is, that doesn't matter right now."

"I'm not, honest!" He insisted, pointing out the window, "I'm only pointing it out because, don't you think it seems a little bit weird? Not that he's dressed like that, but the way he's walking is..."

That was what got him to turn and look out the window as well, and what he saw was rather worrying. Worrying seemed to be the theme of the day. Worrying about Kazuaki and now worrying about this student of his. If he wasn't mistaken, that was Ryouta, "You're right. Do you think we should go outside and see if he's okay?" He asked, but then hesitated and shrugged before shaking his head, "Nevermind. Miss Tosaka's running up to him. She can take care of him, if he needs it."

"All right." Kazuaki nodded, watching as the girl draped her friend's arm around her shoulder and helped him walk away, "I hope that he's okay. I wonder what happened?"

"Whatever it is, Hiyoko can handle it. You, on the other hand." He crossed his arms, "You have to eat something."

"No I don't. I'm not really that hungry, and besides. I don't have much of anything to eat in the house." He fiddled with his scarf as he spoke, "Just expired breakfast food and moldy leftovers."

"If the leftovers are moldy, that's even worse. That means it must have been a while since you last had any dinner at all." Hitori pinched his nose, exhaling slowly, "Why must you make me worry about you like this?"

"I'm sorry..." Kazuaki mumbled, biting down on his own quivering lip and pushing his chair out from the table, so his tears would land on the floor or his knees rather than his students' quizzes.

"Kazuaki, I demand you stop crying." He rolled his eyes, "Because I know you don't spend your salary on anything. Give me some money, I'll go to the store and get you some food. I know the problem's that you don't feel up to shopping, not that you don't have the money." He might have even offered to pay for it himself, but that would just make Kazuaki feel even less capable. As it was, he nodded tearfully and handed over some cash.

Money in hand, Hitori left the apartment, muttering under his breath about what a pain it was to deal with Kazuaki. So why did he do it anyway? Well, those reasons were for him and him alone to know.

He made his way out of the building, taking the elevator down while he had the chance. Given the building's little care for maintenance and upkeep, the elevator was out of order more often than not. Now, one might think that reason to never use the elevator, but he didn't mind so much if he got stuck. Maintenance sucked, but security didn't, so he wouldn't spend too much time in there. Besides, he and Kazuaki had once played a lovely game of Go Fish while trapped in the elevator for an hour, and the stairs were just plain exhausting.

Once in the pseudo-lobby which was more like a simple mudroom, he bumped into somebody. He promptly apologized, before noticing who it was. Ever the curious soul, he had to ask, "Sakazaki? What are you doing here?"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out, Mr. Uzune. How about you?" Despite what he said, the way he said it made him sound very polite. What a nice boy.

"Well, I'll respect your privacy. You probably have a girlfriend here or something like that." He chuckled, and Yuuya gave a noncommittal shrug, "In my case, I'm here because it's where Mr. Nanaki lives. I'm helping him grade some quizzes, since I don't have much to do myself."

"So you're on a date?" Yuuya raised his eyebrows with a smirk, catching Hitori too off-guard to respond straight away, "Oh, I kid, I kid. More or less. In any case, what's a teacher at St. Pigeonation's doing in a place like this? I know they pay you enough to live comfortably in a nicer place than this. If it's something shameful such as a gambling problem, you need not divulge."

"Oh it's nothing like that. Moving is a lot of effort, and Kazua- Mr. Nanaki that is, doesn't have the most ener..." He nearly dozed off mid-sentence, but then continued to speak, "Sorry. He doesn't have the energy to go to the trouble of finding a new place, and he has a tough time caring for even such a small place."

"I would think you would be the one with energy issues, Mr. Uzune." Yuuya proffered up as a half-joke, half-curiosity.

"It's a different sort of energy, you see. I'm physically tired, he's just... tired. Teaching takes a lot out of a guy, and you know the way he is." He shrugged, "I won't keep you any longer, anyhow. Go see your girlfriend, or whatever it is you came here to do."

"I will. Thank you Mr. Uzune, and I hope that Mr. Nanaki feels better soon. Maybe he should move in with you, huh?" Yuuya left one last embarrassing joke behind him as he ran off into the building. Hitori shook his head slowly as he turned and opened the door out onto the street. He still had to get to the store, after all.

His shopping was, unlike the trip there, quick and easy. He got everything he needed, plus several easy microwave meals and the sort so that Kazuaki could feed himself when he wasn't there.

The trip back was similarly simple, with no other encounters with anybody of note. Which was honestly, quite the relief. As polite as Yuuya Sakazaki might be, it was still a holdup to have encountered him. All the more time before Kazuaki ate, which admittedly wasn't the most pressing matter at the moment, but it was still something that he considered important on... some level, he supposed. He wasn't quite sure why he was so concerned now compared to other times. For that concern, he rushed back pretty quickly.

It turned out to be unfounded concern, in the end. Upon arriving back at the apartment, he found Kazuaki was just fine, and had even finished correcting the quizzes. "Oh, hello Hitori. How was the store?"

"The store was fine." He shrugged, putting the grocery bags up on the counter in the kitchen area of the apartment. It was clean too, though that mustn't have been such a big feat given that the oven had probably never even been used in all the time Kazuaki had lived there, "The things I have to do for you... I'm making spaghetti."

"Like... Chef Boyardee spaghetti?" He asked, "Is that a vegetable?" He sounded surprised and absolutely clueless when he saw Hitori pull a tomato out of the bag, "When am I going to use a vegetable...?"

"You're not, I am." Hitori rolled his eyes as he continued to empty the grocery bags, throwing out the old leftovers as he stocked the fridge, "I'm making you actual spaghetti. Even you deserve a real meal once in awhile and who else is going to cook for you?"

"You don't have to... I'm fine with TV dinners, really..." Kazuaki sniffed, a sure sign that he was about to, once again, bring on the waterworks, "I don't want to cause too much trouble..."

"Well, it's not any trouble anyway. Back at Heartful House all the older kids had to take turns cooking dinner, so I learned how pretty easily. Besides, spaghetti is quick and easy, I don't have time to make anything really interesting." He shrugged, putting some water on to boil, "Maybe someday. Don't go getting upset or touched over any of this, by the way. I just like cooking for people, and Nageki doesn't let me make dinner at home too often anymore. Says it's a skill he'll need too, which I guess is true, but I kind of missed making food for people. So your incompetence actually helped me out here."

Upon receiving no reply, Hitori turned to look at Kazuaki, finding him wide-eyed and just staring with some sort of dumb look on his face, before finally saying something. He spoke slowly and oh so completely amazed, "Hitori, that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me..."

"Yeah, well." Hitori was briefly at a loss for words. The nicest thing, ever? For a compliment of idiocy to hold such meaning, maybe Kazuaki was even worse off than Hitori thought. Rather than answer in kind, he only turned back to cooking with a throwaway, "Don't get used to it.


	3. Chapter 3

While Hitori and Nanaki were busy correcting papers, there was another story to be told.

As soon as the bell had rang and school let out, Ryouta had gone straight to work. Which work? Well, that was a very good question, given that he currently had something like four different jobs, all with carefully crafted hours around, not any extracurricular activities, but only each other. Not that he ever minded very much, of course. He'd been working for so long and so hard that balancing jobs like this was almost a lot of fun. Besides, it was the easiest way for him to dress up nice; what excuse could he possibly have to wear a dress any other time, right?

In this case, thanks to his work, he got the opportunity pretty often. Especially given that one of the places he worked was a cafe full of crossdressing waiters. And, he was one of them, usually. Today, however, they were a bit overstaffed with a few of the others requesting extra hours, so he was sent outside to hand out fliers for the place instead. It was a little more intimidating, to be out on the streets dressed like this rather than just in the cafe, but it wasn't as if there weren't assholes come into the shop sometimes, so he was somewhat certain he could deal with them.

It was a simple job, anyhow. All he had to do was walk around in his uniform and hand out fliers; He decided to go a bit away from the shop's location, given that it got enough foot traffic there as it was. Instead he went up a district to try handing out his fliers to some of the more upper-crust folks in town.

It was... interesting, to say the least about being in that area. He didn't think he'd ever been here before, actually, and it was certainly an experience. Uneven brick sidewalks and poured-cement squares gave way to carefully laid cobblestones, and suddenly every telephone pole had a few flowers growing in a little bed around it. Not to mention the streetlights, which departed from the standard fare of simple attachments to the aforementioned poles, instead making space for themselves as regal street lanterns. All frivolities, Ryouta knew, but was amazed nonetheless that there were people who could afford these frivolities in the first place.

All was going, more or less, completely fine. Many people passed and only turned their nose up at him, glared conspicuously, or muttered to a friend how shameful it was, but that was only to be expected anywhere he went. He actually had quite a few people take the flier, some even with a level of enthusiasm he hadn't quite expected; maybe more rich people were perverts than he originally thought. Whatever the case, that was good for business. The first instance of something stepping out of general routine was when he was, nearly robotically, handing a flier to somebody with a big smile and not even noticing who it was.

"Ryouta...?" The question broke him out of his working daze, and he actually noticed who was standing there.

"Oh, hey Sakuya." He chuckled softly as he returned the flier to the stack he held in his other arm, "Sorry! When I work I don't really notice who I'm talking to."

"I almost didn't recognize you, dressed like this..." Sakuya spoke, the whole time giving Ryouta a strange look.

"Oh yeah, the dress?" Ryouta smiled, doing a little half-twirl, "It's my uniform for work. Or at least, for one of my jobs. I work Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, you should come by sometime."

"Cur, do you really think that I, a Le Bel would be interested in a place like that? Crossdressing cafes, they're but hides for scum and villainry..." Sakuya shook his head, holding a hand to his chest and rolling his eyes.

"Well... you're not wrong." Ryouta shrugged a bit, smiling anyway, "There are a lot of bad people who come by, but the waiters are all nice, and if you come when it's not the lunch or dinner rush there's usually not any customers too weird."

"Hmph." Sakuya crossed his arms, "I will not." He said this, but as he walked away he 'discreetly' swiped one of the fliers anyway, "If I do, it's only to humor you."

Ryouta laughed quietly as he saw Sakuya walk away, then enter a house just across the street. Er... not exactly a house. A mansion, really, but that was only to be expected of the Le Bel family. And with that encounter finished, he returned to his usual composure in handing out his fliers.

For another while, everything was going fine, and he fell back into the usual rhythm in handing them out. He was nearing the time he was told to be back at the shop, about forty-five minutes out, and was just starting to feel relieved that nobody had been particularly rude to him, at least, nothing beyond the rudenesses he knew he would endure in the process of this job. Starting to, at least, but he'd jumped the gun.

"The fuck is this?" Somebody in front of him questioned, leaving Ryouta holding the flier in front of him. He scarcely had time to look up and see the large man standing before him before said man spoke again, "You some sort of fag, kid?"

"W-What?" Ryouta asked in shock, pulling back the flier and shaking his head, "No, I mean, the thing is, this is just my uniform for work-"

"Bullshit!" The man's overbearing presence made Ryouta take a step back, then another as he took a step closer to him, leading to him backing up quite a bit, "If that's the truth, why're you trying to run away, huh? You're just some high-school pervert who gets off on wearinv women's clothing, aren't you?"

"No, I. This is for work I'm handing out. I'm handing out fliers look at the flier-" One movement had the fliers knocked out of his hand, and when he looked to the sides he found that he'd been pushed back between two buildings, and the only way back out to the street was through this mountain of a man.

"Jesus, if there's one thing I hate more than perverts, it's liars! And you seem like both to me." Another step had the man standing on Ryouta's foot, and he was clearly not the lightest of people; This bit of pain, mixed in no small part with the fear he was feeling in this moment, caused tears to well up in his eyes, "And now you're gonna cry, are you?? That's not going to get you any sympathy, shitstain."

"Hey, please, I don't want any trouble..." Ryouta protested, only to be punched in the gut. Unable to even reel backward with the hold on his foot, he just let out a short gutteral noise before crumpling forward.

"You should have thought of that before coming out dressed like this!" He was shouting now as he stepped off Ryouta's foot, shoving him to the ground and kicking him, "Dumb-shit fucking perv!" This kick, it wasn't a one-time occurrence. Rather, the man continued to beat on Ryouta as he yelled, "I'm gonna fucking kill you, and nobody will give a damn!"

"Ahem." A clear voice sounded out from somewhere, Ryouta couldn't tell. Just one of those kicks connecting his his face was enough for him to squeeze his eyes shut. He was curled up on his side now, and didn't even move when he heard this other voice despite the fact that it made the abuse stop momentarily, "Excuse me, but what exactly do you think you're doing, cad?"

"I..." To hear his assailant lacking in confidence led Ryouta to open his eyes and see what was going on. Past the man's form, he saw a familiarly pretentious posture that could only belong to...

"To me, it appears you're assaulting the innocent. An activity much unsuited to anybody of status to be living in this area. Thus you are a cad, a cur, a cretin, and a villain." Sakuya. Sakuya, upon saying this, pulled out his cell phone, "And, dare I say, I could absolutely call the police and have you arrested. However, that's an awful lot of work. So I request you step away from my friend, and don't let me catch you harrassing anybody again."

The man nodded, then bolted off clumsily while Sakuya stepped closer to Ryouta on the ground. As he came more into focus, Ryouta could see that he seemed a bit disheveled, and was somewhat out of breath. Before he had the chance to comment, Sakuya explained it himself, "I ran down four sets of stairs and across the street for you. Don't expect me to ever do it again, moron."

"You were actually..." Ryouta started, then coughed, then continued, "You were actually pretty cool for once... thanks."

"Oh, disgusting!" Sakuya exclaimed, pointing at the pavement next to Ryouta's head, "You're coughing up blood! How uncouth and worrying. Should I call you an ambulance?"

"No, I have to get back to the cafe before my shift ends..." Ryouta muttered as he sat up, wiping his eyes then his mouth with the back of his wrist, "You can go back to whatever you were doing just now, I'll be fine..." He leaned against the wall of the building beside him while standing up.

"Are you certain?" Sakuya questioned, and Ryouta just nodded, "Well, if you're sure, I'll go..." Another nod, and he turned hesitantly. With his phone still in his hand, he dialed a number as soon as he was out of earshot and eyesight of Ryouta.

The injured boy, meanwhile, made his way down the street, limping and leaning on any walls he was next to. He'd managed to make it about halfway back to the shop when he heard footsteps, somebody running up to him. He turned to look, and saw Hiyoko skidding to a stop, "Ryouta! Oh my god, are you okay?? What happened?"

"Oh, Hiyoko..." He greeted her quietly, then almost fell over, an action which she remedied by draping his arm over her shoulders and holding him up, "Some jerk tried to kill me... no big deal..."

"No big deal!? Ryouta, you have to describe him to me in perfect detail! So if I ever meet him, I can use my honed hunter-gatherer battle skills to return the favor!"

"It's fine, Hiyoko, I'm fine. Just a bit hurt and a bit shaken up, I'll be all right soon enough." He shook his head as she helped him walk, "Thanks for the offer, though."

"Anytime! I'll fight everybody." She responded brightly, holding her free arm up in a fist. She seemed serious about it, and he just shook his head again with a soft and dismissive laugh.

With her help, Ryouta was able to get back to the shop and explained to his boss what happened, no thanks to Hiyoko's interjections about how she was totally willing to fight anybody at all. Though, those interjections did get her a job; to be the bodyguard for any of the employees out on the streets. The need for it being a rather embarrassing fact to Ryouta, but it truly was necessary and he could attest to that.

He was given the next two weeks off with pay as compensation, and a giftcard to the cafe too. His boss wished he had more to offer, but couldn't think of anything, and Ryouta was fine with that. He was fine with just about anything.

That night at home, his stomach was acting up again, helped in no small part by the punch to the gut and subsequent kicks he'd received earlier that day. He didn't let his mom see him at all. He didn't want to worry her, or anybody. He could handle it. These were his problems, after all. Nobody else's. So he'd solve them all on his own. Somehow.


	4. Chapter 4

Yuuya Sakazaki didn't notice Ryouta.

That's not to say that he generally wasn't aware of Ryouta Kawara's existence, no. He certainly knew about his underclassmen in detail; The statement of his not noticing Ryouta only applied in one particular moment, when Hiyoko Tosaka was supporting his weight and helping him down the street. Yuuya didn't see that, and if he had, then he would have absolutely stopped to help when he passed by them on the other side of the street, going the other way. As it was, however, he didn't see them, and hence (when considering the delay he took in talking to Mr. Uzune) he wasn't late to his appointment.

What sort of appointment was it, anyway? Well, given the secrecy involved when he talked about why he was there and the general secrecy about his life in general, one might think that it was an appointment with a prospective employer seeking his sneaking expertise for their own gain-

But that assumption would be completely wrong. True, any other time it wouldn't be so unexpected, but this was... October. October was Yuuya's light season, so in order to keep busy, he had to take a few other odd jobs. In this case, that odd job was tutoring an underclassman in science. Not to say Yuuya himself was the best student around, but that was why he ended up with this job. This student was apparently doing so incredibly badly in science that the A+ students couldn't even handle him. So maybe a consistent B- student could get on his level a little bit easier.

Of course, the truth of the matter wasn't that he couldn't be handled due to his low scores, but rather that he couldn't be handled as a simple result of his personality.

Yuuya, unknowing of this fact, took the elevator up, checking the paper he had to make sure he was going to the right floor and, subsequently, the right apartment. All he really knew about the Akagi family was that they had an apartment here because most of their bill payments had to be focused on the fish shop that they also owned. Besides, it was one of the bigger apartments in the cheap complex; And if they could afford a tutor for their son, they couldn't be all that badly off anyhow.

Yuuya located the apartment, then knocked on the door, only to be greeted by a short and friendly woman, "Oh! You must be the new tutor." She looked him up and down, "You seem like a nice boy."

"So I've heard." He chuckled a bit as she let him inside, "It's a lovely pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms Akagi."

"The pleasure is all mine! Now, my boy Yoshio, he's a bit eccentric you see. The other tutors just didn't understand him, but that shouldn't prevent him from improving his grade in science, right?"

"Of course not. Those tutors were just ill-suited to the job. I assure you, I will not abandon this task so easily as them." Yuuya promised, and his pupil's mother giggled a bit. Of course, he could make grown women swoon too. Not that he would interfere at all with her marriage, of course.

"Well, Yoshio is in his room, right through that door." She pointed, and he nodded in thanks before entering it. Upon arriving in the room, the first thing he noticed was the... odd decor. The second thing he noticed was the scene kid sitting at a desk across the room; This guy was a sophomore? He certainly didn't look it. Before Yuuya could even say anything, he shouted from the desk.

"I have been waiting for you!" He then stood up and whirled around, pointing a brush pen at Yuuya and consequently spattering him with ink, "The Apostle of the Violet Rose! Come then, for we must prepare for the hour of reckoning!"

"Well," Yuuya wiped the ink off of his face with a good-natured smile, "I'm here to tutor you in science, Yoshio Agaki."

"Y-Y-Y-Yoshiooo???" He looked shocked and taken aback, shaking his head violently, "No! I am the Crimson Angel of Judecca, and if you must call be by anything but my true name, let it be the name Anghel Higure!"

"Well then, Anghel." He sighed softly, understanding now why the other tutors had given up on him. Of course, he wasn't about to do the same, and he already had some ideas to make him cooperate. Given that calming him down didn't seem to be an option, he would instead play along, "It is I, the Apostle of the Violet Rose, come to tutor you in science."

"Science! You do burn me with that word! Science, that rotten construct of man made to devalue all that is good and right in the world, to explain away all good magic while leaving the worser to run free on Earth as in Hell!" He waved his hand out in front of him with exaggerated movements.

"No, you do misunderstand, fallen angel! I mean not to make you succumb to science, rather, I am here to aid you in conquering it!" He was coming up with this on the spot, only hoping it would work somehow, "To beat an enemy, you must first understand it, no?"

"Well..." He put his brush pen down on the desk, side-eyeing Yuuya, "It seems that you are, after all, better versed in battle tactics than I, Midnight Rose... I will relent to this study, only if you agree to be my ally in the hour of reckoning..."

"Well, I'm a busy man. I'll have to know when the hour of reckoning is before I can commit to it." He chuckled as he sat down at the desk and gestured for Anghel to do the same, pulling out the science worksheets he'd prepared for them to work on, "Why don't you let me know once you've finished these worksheets?" Anghel nodded, and within five minutes all the worksheets were done. He handed them off to Yuuya, who looked them over skeptically.

"I have completed the worksheets." Anghel spoke, "And in turn, defeated the villainous obstacles set before me."

"Well, they need to be done correctly..." He reminded him as he peered over them, but then shrugged, "Well, you answered all the questions correctly. Clearly you don't actually need my help, you just need to apply yours-"

"No! It is by the merit of your words that a power within me woke, to recall that which I had heard in class! Words of the Midnight Rose which have led me infallibly to being capable of this previously insurmountable task!" He hit the table with his fist as he said this earnestly, "I had repressed all memory of scientific learnings in the past out of mere spite, but now your brilliant attack plan has brought me to a different plane of understanding!"

"Well... good job." Yuuya nodded slowly, "Just keep that up, right? Don't forget it all again the moment I leave. So when is this hour of reckoning anyhow?"

"I do not know. You do not know. When the time comes, we shall know." Anghel responded, staring intently into his eyes. Yuuya just pushed up his glasses and sighed.

"That certainly does make it hard to make plans around it." He shook his head, "I'll do my best to be there in this hour of reckoning, of course, but shall we make other plans to be the recompense? Perhaps Sunday afternoon we could go out to eat somewhere."

"This going out to eat you speak of..." Anghel muttered before popping up to full volume and consequently standing, hitting his knees on the bottom of the desk but ignoring that fact, "It reeks too much of romance! What do you intend with such words, Midnight Rose?"

"My intentions are only friendly, I assure you. That is, unless you would prefer it be otherwise. I am a flexible person, after all." He shrugged.

"I... I believe the better intentions to be, as a friendly matter! For, in this life at least, we have only just met! Whatever bond it is we shared when we were once the Crimson Angel and Midnight Rose is not a strong enough bond, come this life, to leave us in such a position, thusfar!"

"Don't you worry, Mon Amie," He winked as he got up and left the room, "I kid, more or less." His words leaving Anghel flustered, he thanked his mother and explained that he had improved drastically before leaving the apartment altogether.

Now, he was rather confused, in all honesty. He had no idea why he had taken to flirting with Anghel so particularly much, seeing as that level of behavior was a level he usually reserved only for women he was attempting to court; or, well, at least leave swooning by the time he left. Perhaps, then, he found himself attracted to the bearer of eccentricities? No, that couldn't be it. He must have just enjoyed messing with him. That's right. That was all.


	5. Chapter 5

"This spaghetti is so good..." Kazuaki was staring at his half-finished plate, eyes watering.

"If it's so good, then why do you look like you're about to cry... again?" Hitori questioned blankly, to which Kazuaki simultaneously shrugged, shook his head, and wiped his eyes.

"Sorry!" He sniffed, picking up another forkful, "It's just so good... like nothing I've ever eaten before... I can't even handle myself, Hitori, you're so nice to make this for me..."

"It's just spaghetti..." He sighed in annoyance, but was relieved to hear that these tears were at least tears of joy, as ridiculous as that was. Clearly the way to Kazuaki's heart really was through his stomach, given that the only other time he'd ever acted this way was when Hitori confirmed that they were friends, "It's easy to make. You must have eaten something better than this at some point..."

"No the local takeout is all pretty bad..." Kazuaki mumbled through a mouthful.

"What about when you were growing up?" He questioned, not even stopping to think that could possibly be an even sorer subject.

"...What about it?" He asked, having finished the mouthful of spaghetti and was now biting down on the inside of his cheek, "Nobody ever cooked for me when I was a kid either... I had a lot of TV dinners. Isn't that how it usually goes? You learn to cook or you just eat microwave food and takeout forever? That's what my mother always told me."

"Well that's how it went for you but that's not how it's supposed to go. If you don't learn to cook you just have to make sure to marry or move in or something with somebody who can cook. Nobody should go his whole life without ever having home-cooked meals." Hitori shook his head with a sigh, "Now that I know that I have to cook for you more often."

"You really don't have to..." Kazuaki shook his head, starting to cry. Again. As usual, "I mean, I'm already enough trouble for you... I don't want to be even more..."

"Kazuaki, I'm pretty sure you've already crossed a threshold into the most trouble you could get to being, and I'm still here. This is no big deal, really." He shrugged, "Like I said, I like cooking for people. And considering how much you seem to appreciate my cooking, you're the best person for that."

"Th-Thank you Hitori..." Kazuaki smiled sheepishly before continuing to eat and finishing his plate.

"You finished correcting the quizzes while i was out at the store, right?" A nod confirmed this, "All right, then, as much as I'd like to stay, I should probably be getting home. I don't much like leaving Nageki alone for too long."

"Nageki is graduating at the end of this year..." Kazuaki muttered, "I'm sure he's okay. Just call and make sure, maybe?"

"It's getting kind of late anyhow, Kazuaki. I can't stay much longer regardless so I may as well head out." He sighed, shaking his head, "Besides, I helped you with the quizzes and I made you dinner. There's nothing else for me to do here. I'd have to leave in the next hour to be home before it got too dark out."

"I mean, you could always..." Kazuaki trailed off, saying something else that was completely inaudible between his volume and his mumbling.

"What was that?" Hitori questioned, given that he hadn't been able to understand.

"I-Never mind." Kazuaki shook his head, blushing for some reason, "Sorry, it's not important. You're right, you should get going before it's too dark out."

"Well." Hitori shrugged, standing up and heading towards the door, "I'll see you on Monday." 

"Yeah. See you then." Kazuaki responded as Hitori left, sighing as soon as the door was closed. He looked around the apartment, briefly contemplated doing the dishes, then decided against it. He'd do it in the morning. For now, the setting sun would serve as the backdrop for his sleep that night as he crawled into bed, wrapped himself in blankets, and remembered a time when this was all he did. A time before Hitori gave him the kick he needed to start getting his life in order. Start. It was only a start. It wasn't in order, though, and would it ever be?

No, it wouldn't. He knew this, too. There was no miraculous way to recover from depression, there were only good days and bad days. Good days were the days when he was able to shower, and clean up some of his apartment, and go to work all in the same day. Bad days were those when he could only do one or two of those, and that wasn't even taking into consideration all the other daily tasks which constantly seemed like insurmountable hurdles to him.

Today had been, by that definition, a bad day. He was hardly able to kick himself into gear to go to work, to correct those quizzes, to invite Hitori over. And no way was he able to do anything after his friend left; but the day, by other definitions, was a good one. Maybe he wasn't doing so hot, but the day was an enjoyable one. It was nice, he thought, to be happy occasionally, even if it was just for a few moments. And maybe that was it, maybe that was all he felt towards Hitori. A gratitude for letting him be happy, sometimes.

But then again, maybe it wasn't just that.

\----------------  
Hitori was walking home, because this town was small enough that when the weather was nice, everybody walked everywhere they needed to get. When the weather was bad... well, when the weather was bad, most people didn't even really go out. And when they did, they usually just got a taxi. What was the point of owning a car when getting around town on foot was so easy? Those who needed to commute out of town for work, of course, might get a car; in the case that the train didn't stop in the town where they worked. More commonly, people would only rent cars for a few days when they needed to go somewhere too far out of town.

So it was that it was just beginning to get dark out by the time he arrived back. A cool evening wash had fallen between the time he'd left Kazuaki's place and when he got back to his own, and he announced his presence as soon as he got in the door, "Nageki, I'm back!"

"Already?" Nageki answered quietly, sitting and reading at the kitchen table, "It's only just getting dark out. I half expected you to stay the night over there. Did you eat with him? If not, there's some meatloaf in the fridge."

"No, I ate there, thanks though." Hitori shrugged as he sat down at the table as well, "Why would you think I'd stay over, though? I wouldn't leave you home alone overnight."

"You know, because you two are boyfriends or something-"

"We're not." Hitori cut him off quickly with blunt words and a glare.

"Uh huh." Nageki just stared back at him for a few moments before turning his gaze back to the book, "Anyway, I'm not a kid anymore. I can handle myself being home alone. You're fine leaving me for an afternoon, but not overnight? All I have to do at night is sleep, it takes even less competence to be home alone at night than to be home during the day. So clearly, I'm capable of it."

"Well, what if somebody breaks into the house in the middle of the night?"

"Yeah, what if? When you go to sleep on purpose it takes an army to wake you up so what would you do it about it anyway?"

"Well-" Hitori paused, collecting his thoughts, "If you knew I was going to be gone for too long, you might throw a party."

Nageki just stared blankly at him for a good minute before speaking, "Valid point, except it isn't valid at all. Do you really think I'd do something like that? And I don't have any friends to invite anyway, even if I would."

"Sorry." Hitori sighed, crossing his arms, "I... guess you're right. But I worry about you, Nageki."

"You don't have to worry about me anymore, Hitori. I'm not as fragile as I used to be. I don't get sick as often anymore, and I can do things for myself." Nageki spoke softly, "You've been worrying about me as a life-goal for years. At least right now, I'm capable. So you deserve a break."

"Nageki..."

"You should relax a little, okay? I promise, if things get worse again, I'll tell you. Right now though, I'm all right. Go out and have fun, and all that stuff." Nageki smiled, just a little bit. Hitori sighed, shrugged, then nodded, then Nageki's smile grew the slightest bit, "Good. Next time you visit Kazuaki, don't hesitate to stay as long as you want to. I'll be fine."

"Well, I still won't stay overnight. I don't have any reason to, though you seem to think otherwise. But I will try to stop worrying about you so much. Maybe I do stress myself out a bit too much."

"Whatever you say." Nageki shrugged as he returned, once more, to reading.


	6. Chapter 6

Sunday rolled around just a little too quickly for one Anghel Higure. The time between Friday afternoon and Sunday was little more than a blink of an eye to one so eternal as he considered himself after all, and he didn't even have the time to get over how flustered he was in the first place before it was once more time to meet with the Apostle of the Violet Rose. 

To say he'd been caught off guard by Yuuya's behavior during the tutoring session would be an understatement. Rather, he couldn't have expected it in the slightest and as was made clear, was still reeling from it. To think that somebody he barely met would ambiguously ask him on a date; and a person who was maybe mildly (Greatly, but that was never to be admitted) attractive at that? Of course, Anghel didn't believe in entering romantic relationships with a near-stranger, but...

It wasn't like they'd REALLY only just met yesterday, if he was remembering correctly. They'd fought side by side in many great battles, long ago, and that was a certain sort of bond that must have meant something worthwhile... it just had to.

In any case, he was certainly in no way prepared for this not-a-date scheduled today. He arrived ten minutes early, only to find that Yuuya had also arrived ten minutes early, and he was at a disadvantage after all. Before any sort of greeting, he already started to make excuses, "My reason for being so early, it is not out of anticipation! Apostle of the Violet Rose, I only came so soon to ensure the safety of the perimeter before your arrival! With your powers yet unawakened, the demon spores would easily make quick work of you if you entered a building with a sprawling infestation!"

"Oh, Crimson Angel of Judecca. My powers may lie dormant, but I am very capable in this life, physically. You need not worry about me." Yuuya chuckled as he went to sit at a nearby table, gesturing for Anghel to come along with him. He followed and sat down, leaning over the menu with his shoulders hunched and hiding his face somewhat, "Did I embarrass you? I apologize."

"You... You did not!" Anghel insisted, snapping up straight then pointing at the ceiling aimlessly, "I am only hiding from the demon spores that are above us!"

Yuuya looked up, "You mean that fly? They do keep the doors open, a few bugs are only to be expected..."

"It's a demon spore!" Anghel repeated himself, just a bit too loud for the setting, causing a few other customers to look over in confusion. Yuuya just shook his head, picked up the menu, and swatted it, only to get the even louder response of, "You defeated it! Why, Midnight Rose, I truly did underestimate you!"

"I knew that you did. Remember that not all capability is measured in manifestations from the past, Anghel." Yuuya closed his eyes and shook his head with a smirk. He had to admit, it was rather fun to play along with these... delusions? Well, he shouldn't assume. Maybe this was just how Anghel got attention or something along those lines. Then again... this habit certainly put a modicum of distance between him and others, so maybe that was the intention. Taking up strange habits to scare people off... was not something Yuuya was entirely unfamiliar with, after all. White lies were his own.

"A-Anyway, let us determine which of these items we shall consume to power these mortal shells..." Anghel's enthusiasm died down to a near-mumble as he started to look through the menu, and Yuuya did likewise.

Luckily for the other patrons of the restaurant, Anghel didn't get anywhere near as loud again throughout the course of the meal while they made small talk. Anghel asked odd questions such as 'What's your favorite manga' and 'Just how many demon spores have you vanquished' while Yuuya asked such odd questions as 'What are your favorite flowers' and 'What scent do you enjoy the most'. By the end of lunch, neither of them knew the other's favorite color, but instead knew strange tidbits of information that were a much better glance into their personalities than something as simple as a color.

Once they got through the small-talk of questions, Anghel started to tell Yuuya all about the manga he was working on; And was additionally surprised when he seemed genuinely interested, as most people just tuned him out when he began talking about something as admittedly nerdy as that. Not Yuuya, though. Strangely enough, the weirder Anghel got, the more interested Yuuya found himself being. Most of the people he flirted with on a day-to-day basis were painfully average. Anghel was most distinctly... not.

When they were done eating, Yuuya asked for the check, with a throwaway "I'll pay," that Anghel hardly caught, but the moment he did, he shook his head.

"No! We must split the bill! If you are to pay for all of it, then it truly would become a date after all, and that's not what this is! This is just a friendly outing, to get to know you better!" Anghel waved his arms franctically as he said this, but Yuuya was unfazed, just looking at him and blinking a few times.

"But we know each other well enough now for this to have been a date, don't we?" Those words set Anghel blushing bright red, and Yuuya just chuckled as he paid the bill, then led the still-flustered other outside with him, "My, you get embarrassed very easily for somebody who's always making a scene."

"Making a scene is an entirely different matter from being implied... romance!" Anghel crossed his arms and scowled, "Why must you tease me such, Midnight Rose?"

"Please, Anghel." He sighed softly, "Though I am the Apostle of the Violet Rose, I'm quite fond of my name in this life."

"Fine then! Why must you tease me such, Yuuya??" He corrected himself, his demeanor remaining the same.

"Because you're quite cute when flustered, mon amie." Yuuya chuckled, closing his eyes and pushing up his glasses.

"Shut up and proffer me a truthful answer!" Anghel retorted, and Yuuya sighed.

"Are you really so obtuse to matters such as these?" He questioned, putting his hand's on Anghel's cheeks, which only heated up more, "I'm telling you the truth, Anghel," And with that, he leaned down and kissed him.

Anghel pulled away, red as a fire engine, "M-Midnight, I mean, Yuuya! Is this some sort of joke??"

"I just told you that it wasn't." Yuuya rolled his eyes.

"In that case, very well. But do know that in the future, I would much prefer being alerted ahead of time if you are going to kiss me, to have time to properly prepare myself! Too much emotion, paired with surprise, has the potential to awaken the dark power stored within my crimson breast!" He crossed his arms, looking away.

"Well then, mon amie, I can abide by that request. I'm also going to kiss you again, if that's all right."

"Hm." Anghel grumbled, then sighed, "It is more than all right. It would be... appreciated, even. If, that is, you intend to remain by my side!"

"My! Anghel, I may be a flirt, but I'm not the sort to kiss and go. It would be an honor to, perhaps, have you as my boyfriend, Crimson Angel of Judecca."

"..." Anghel attempted to respond, but just ended up red as a beet again before Yuuya put a hand on his shoulder and kissed him again.


	7. Chapter 7

Monday morning, Hitori woke up to his overly clamorous alarm (overly clamorous, that is, for anybody but him). He took a shower, got dressed, and went downstairs, just like any typical morning before work. Things quickly turned atypical, however, when the trip downstairs ended in him noticing that Kazuaki was asleep on the couch.

Kazuaki sleeping on the couch wasn't an altogether strange occurrence, but that was usually in the middle of the day when he happened to decide to take a nap while hanging out, because that was what he did. He spent so much time at Hitori and Nageki's house that it was a wonder he valued getting his own clean so much. What was odd about this was not only the timing, but also the fact that Kazuaki had not been there the previous evening, "Oi, wake up. What are you doing here?"

Kazuaki stirred groggily, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes before promptly replacing it with tears, "I'm sorry Hitori! I was hearing weird noises at my apartment so I got scared and came here! Please don't be mad at me!"

"You..." Hitori started, paused, mulled it over in his head, then continued, "So you... You left your apartment because you were scared, in the middle of the night, and walked all the way here. Through the... probably much more frightening darkness?"

"It was scary but it wasn't as scary as the noises! I wanted to get away from the noises so I came here... I remembered to bring my teaching stuff and some clothes for today at least so I won't be late for work..." Kazuaki sniffed, picking up a bag from next to the couch.

"Say... didn't you get some new neighbors recently? I noticed them when I dropped you off at your place about a week ago. One of those times when we got stuck in the elevator during my efforts to be nice to you." Hitori pondered aloud, "And if I'm not mistaken, they're a couple? So what sort of noises, exactly, were you hearing?"

"It sounded like a ghost and a banshee were being tortured..." He muttered as he pulled his change of clothes out.

Hitori sighed, then proceeded to facepalm, "Sorry to break it to you, Kazuaki, but I don't think those noises are going to stop anytime soon. They're a byproduct of an activity that some couples, and seemingly the one next door to you, partake in."

"They torture things toge-Oh. Ohhhh." Kazuaki's embarrassment was only visible in the form of a blush for a few seconds before he hid his face in the handful of clothing, and when he spoke again it was clear his crying had gotten worse, "I can't believe I'm so dumb!! Of course that's all it was! I'm sorry Hitori! I didn't even stop to think that, maybe..."

"Yeah that wasn't the smartest decision you've ever made. But that's in the past now anyway. We've got enough time, you can go take a shower while I make breakfast." He offered, and Kazuaki nodded, still hiding his face as he went up the stairs, passing by Nageki on his way up.

"I see Kazuaki is as cheerful as always." Nageki said to Hitori once the person in question had disappeared into the bathroom, "At least he doesn't seem scared anymore."

"You were awake when he got here?" Hitori asked, frowning, "That must have been pretty late..."

"Not that late." Nageki shrugged as he grabbed an apple out of the fridge, leaving it open for Hitori to get whatever he needed from it too, "I actually went to bed a little earlier than I usually do. I tend to fall asleep while reading, but last night I finished my book, so I slept then. I feel incredibly rested."

"Nageki, a sleep schedule like that can't be good for your health." Hitori sighed, "You're doing better, true, but don't jeopardize it."

"Whatever." Nageki shrugged as he bit into the apple, "I don't really care. It's not like it really matters, as long as I don't die."

"It most certainly does matter, Nageki." Hitori frowned as he put his ingredients on the counter, "If your health declines again, then you COULD die. Maybe not right away, but it could happen. You need to work to keep your good health, not to get it back if you lose it again. You were just telling me Friday not to worry so much, but then you give me every reason to keep on worrying."

"Okay. Sorry." Nageki shrugged, "I'll go to sleep earlier from now on. Hey, is it okay that I told Kazuaki he could sleep on the couch when he showed up here?"

"Of course it's okay. You couldn't just tell him to go home, when he came to our house in the middle of the night. And if you did, you'd be in trouble for it." Hitori responded with a shrug.

"You know, Hitori..." Nageki's voice dropped to a deeper and quieter tone, as if he didn't want to be heard from the other room, "It really isn't me you should be worrying about anymore. It's Kazuaki. You do realized how depressed he is, right? Like, actual clinical depression. That's why he's so bad at getting up the energy to do things. And with his emotional instability on top of that..."

"No, no, it's not that big a deal, Nageki. He says he wants to die all the time, but he doesn't really. He just says it because he's upset, but he's actually scared of death." Hitori shook his head.

"Don't ignore me, Hitori. Just think, okay? Imagine you keep on thinking that way, then one day you get in to work and you find out he offed himself overnight." His stare seemed to go right through Hitori, and it made him uncomfortable.

"I... Okay." He nodded, "I'll keep an eye on him."

A few minutes later, Hitori had finished making breakfast, and Kazuaki walked into the room. After eating (An event which involved very much of Kazuaki's ridiculously high food-based emotions, of course) the three of them all left to walk to the school. Nageki spent the walk with his nose in a book, and almost walked into a few telephone poles, while the other two spent the walk talking about their curriculum plans for the day. Given that English was a core class rather than an elective, Kazuaki had quite a bit more planning to do, technically. Or he would, if not for the fact that Hitori helped him out with just about everything except that which required actual knowledge on the curriculum.

So really, the discussion was more like Hitori making sure Kazuaki wasn't forgetting anything; But in any case, that was the conversation of the morning.

Just like Friday, they went their separate ways when classes started. Just like Friday, Hitori had no more than 3 attendees of his math class during elective block. And of course, just like Friday, Kazuaki came running in after school, whining.

"What is it this time, Kazuaki?" Hitori asked as he closed up his laptop, sighing.

"Hitori the! The advisor of the manga club asked me to go to Comiket to keep an eye on a student with his own booth, but I can't do something like this on my own! Will you come with me??" Kazuaki wailed, leaning on Hitori's desk.

"You could ask me to go with you in a less pathetic way, you know." Hitori rolled his eyes and put his bag up on his shoulder, "You know I'm not about to turn you down for anything more than trivial. And even then, I clearly can't even always do that much."

"So... So you'll go...?" Kazuaki asked, holding his hands together tightly in front of himself.

"Yeah, of course I will. But isn't Comiket usually closer to New Year's than this?" He questioned, walking out the door with Kazuaki.

"Usually, but apparently it got moved? In any case, it's this weekend... you don't have plans, right...?" He asked, still nervous that Hitori wouldn't be able to go after all.

"Kazuaki, I never have plans anymore. And even if I did have plans, unless it was something really important, I'd go anyway. I don't want to say that I'd clear my schedule for you, but I would. Don't go getting emotional over that, now."

"Every time you tell me not to get emotional, I do anyway!" Kazuaki sniffed, evidently trying not to cry some more, with a wobbly smile, "Because you keep doing all these... all these nice things for me... You're just so..." His smile started to fall, and his crying became worse, "You don't have to do this if you don't want to, Hitori... You don't have to keep humoring me all the time... I know I'm tough to deal with..."

"I'm not humoring you, Kazuaki. Well, mostly. In any case, it's not a big deal, and I enjoy spending time with you regardless. So calm down, okay? Stop doubting yourself over everything all the time. I actually enjoy doing things for you. And don't go getting all teary over that statement too." Hitori sighed, putting an arm around Kazuaki's shoulder, who just nodded, wiping his eyes again.

And so, Hitori walked his friend home again. He almost asked to stick around for a bit, but decided against it, going back home instead; Or at least, that was his initial choice, but halfway there he paused, turned around, and went back to Kazuaki's apartment, knocking on the door.


	8. Chapter 8

There was no answer when Hitori knocked on the door. In any other situation, this wouldn't be particularly worrying. However, this was not any other situation. Just twenty minutes ago, he'd seen Kazuaki go into this very door, and he wasn't usually the type of person to... leave the house. Coupled with the sudden urge he had to get back here as quickly as possible, he was filled a very deep dread. He didn't even take the time to knock again, instead opening the door. Of course Kazuaki hadn't locked it.

Upon opening the door, his dread was confirmed immediately, but at least he'd never been the sort to hesitate before jumping into action. He'd hardly even processed what was going on when he ran forward at top speed, grabbed Kazuaki's cheeks, and literally reached in and emptied his mouth. It was only after he'd done it that he realized exactly what had just happened, as he looked down at the pills scattered across the floor, then back up at his friend in utter horror, "Kazuaki!"

Kazuaki didn't reply, only turning to clumsily throw open the silverware drawer and grab the biggest knife in there; Again, Hitori was only just fast enough, tackling Kazuaki and sending the knife sliding across the tile, though he somehow managed to knock him onto the carpet. Now lying with his whole body on top of his torso, he reached out and pinned his wrists down. He didn't stop to think about how strange this particular closeness was, his only concern in this moment was Kazuaki's safety. So he found himself shouting tearfully at another tearstained face, "Kazuaki, what the hell did you just try to do!?" All he got in response was sobbing, "Answer me! Answer me, goddammit! Please tell me you weren't-"

"That would be l-lying, Hitori!" He finally spoke, taking shaky breaths that left him sounding almost like he was hiccuping through every word he said, "I was! I was trying to die!"

"Are you stupid!?" His voice was somewhere between furious and panicking. Kazuaki tried to move again, but he held him down.

"Yes...!" Kazuaki wailed back at him, "I am! I'm really stupid, and that's why I should just die! For real this time!"

"No you shouldn't! You don't want to die!" Hitori shook his head, continuing to hold him down. He was hyperventilating as he spoke, hardly even believing himself, "You never really wanted to before, after all!"

"I do want to die Hitori! I'm no good for anythi-ing at ALL..." He choked out through frequent, loud sobs, "Just let me go! Let me die! It'll be more convenient for you anyway! All I ever do is be a nuisance to you! I rely on you to help me with everything and I drag you along all the time and you'd just be s-so much better off without me..."

"That's a load of bullcrap, Kazuaki!" Hitori hissed out, "You're not a nuisance, and what the hell gave you the idea that I'd ever want to be without you!?"

"I'm always m-making you help me w-without you I can't even function I'm no good for anything I'm useless I'm a useless, good for nothing member of society leeching off of you..."

"Kazuaki! Enough of this!" Hitori finally shifted, moving to a more comfortable position where he was hovering over Kazuaki's chest, weight all on his knees and the hands keeping wrists pinned to the ground, "It's my choice to help you, okay!? If I didn't want to, I wouldn't! You've done nothing wrong at all!"

\------------------  
Kazuaki Nanaki wanted to die.

There were no other thoughts in his mind, basically. Any others always led to the same conclusion.

I'm failing my classes.  
I will never graduate.  
I will never get a job.  
I will never be useful to anybody.  
I want to die.

My apartment is a mess.  
I should clean it, but I can't.  
It's disgusting and I am too.  
I sleep in this filth.  
I want to die.

I ordered pizza for dinner.  
I don't know how to cook.  
I can't learn.  
All my money goes towards terrible food.  
If I stopped eating, would it be so bad?  
I want to die.

So there he was on that day. The wind whipped through his hair and the chilly air froze the tears to his face. That pain he felt was all the more reason to die. The pain that grew worse every minute, the chill cutting through even his coat and scarf. He cried, and kept crying, and kept wondering why he wasn't just going to get on with the dying.

Just one step and he'd be off the bridge. One step and he'd fall, fall unconscious on the way maybe, or hit his head on the way down and be swept away by the roiling current in the river below. Swept away body, swept away all memories of his self. He stood there with a grip on the railing behind him so tight that his knuckles were turning ivory white.

"Hey. What are you doing over there?" He heard a voice from behind him. An unfamiliar voice, but all voices were unfamiliar to him now. He knew nobody, and nobody knew him, and who would even notice he was gone? But he turned around anyway, finding there a dark-haired man his age, wearing mostly dark colors, with a red scarf that stood out against it all.

"I want to die. I'm going to jump off this bridge and kill myself." Kazuaki answered bluntly, having no reason to keep the truth from this stranger. Nothing could be done the moment he jumped, after all. So he'd just take the step backwards the moment this man made to call the police.

"If you want to die so badly, why have you been standing there for an hour now? I spotted you from across town and that's how long it took me to get over here." The stranger questioned, tilting his head to the side with a pondering look on his face.

"Because I'm afraid." Kazuaki answered, again, truthfully.

"If you're afraid, then you don't really want to die, do you?"

"I'm afraid of dying but I'm also afraid of continuing to live." Kazuaki turned his gaze to the ground.

"Life is scary sometimes. Death is scary too. But, you know." The stranger paused, then held out his hand, "If you die, you're all alone. At least when you're alive, somebody can help you face those fears, right?"

"I have nobody. Nobody likes me. Everyone who remembers me now hates me." He shook his head, "Nobody to help me."

"Well, that's just not true." The stranger shook his head, then offered a soft smile, "My name is Hitori Uzune, and as of today, you have me."

Kazuaki climbed back over the railing, carefully. Stepped down from the small ledge. Laid his hand in Hitori's.

And felt safe, for the first time in his life.  
\-----------------

"Hitori, I..." Kazuaki's resolve was wavering now, his protests quieter, his tears a little slower, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" But, they only got worse again, "Ever since we met I was just a pain to you! You're only even my friend because I didn't have any other friends back then, when you..."

"Kazuaki, I would have been your friend even if you'd had all the friends in the world. The way you were, it was clear you needed somebody who knew what you were going through, somebody who wanted to help you. And I wanted to. I wanted to be your friend. I wanted to help you get better, back then, and you have gotten better! You're doing so well now, Kazuaki! Don't go throwing it away!"

"I'm only doing better because you're going to all this trouble for me! I'm not worth it!"

"Kazuaki..." Hitori paused, then sighed heavily, staring at the other's face. His gaze was soft, the anger and panic dissipated, "You are worth it. I don't care how you feel right now, okay? That sounds rude, but truly, I don't. Even if you feel completely worthless, you're wrong. And even if you don't care about me at all, that's okay too. But I love you. You are worth so much to me. I don't want to lose you."


	9. Chapter 9

"I... think I love you too, Hitori." Kazuaki whispered while looking back up at him, finally relaxing his tense and ready-to-bolt muscles, "At least I think that's what this feeling is. I want to spend a lot of time with you. So much time, as much time as possible, even more than now. I want to be close to you. I want to do... all these things, but then that's..." He trailed off, tearing up again, "To want things like that, to want more after you already do so much for me... I really am a terrible person..."

"Stop." Hitori said simply, hesitated, then kissed his forehead, "You need to stop thinking that wanting things is only selfish. Sometimes it can be, but to want things is only human, okay? Would you call me a terrible person, for wanting to spend time with you?"

"No... when you want to spend time with me I'm really happy. I think it makes you a great person."

"So how about this. We each give each other something. You want to spend time together, I want you to stay alive. You want to be close to me, I want you to be safe and happy. So we exchange. You get what you want and I get what I want, someday. I know you can't just miraculously get better and become happy, that's not how it works. But someday, okay? You have to stick around for me, so I can see that day."

"Okay, Hitori..." Kazuaki nodded, and his wrists were released. He scooted out from underneath Hitori and sat up.

"And I think the best way for us to accomplish these mutual goals, Kazuaki... is if I were to become your boyfriend, don't you think?" Hitori offered, smiling at him softly.

"W-Well I mean... that would be... very nice..." Kazuaki stammered out, pushing his fingers together in some sort of nervous habit, "So do you think you could... maybe... hug me? Really tight, right now?" Hitori nodded, and pulled him in close. Holding on like his life depended on it, and Kazuaki felt okay again. Just a little bit. But for now, that was enough. To feel as if he didn't want to die... was an emotion he had only truly felt twice now. And it would fade, he knew that. In this moment, however, all was right in the world.

\-----------  
"Hey, Hiyoko?" A voice piped up from behind her, but rather than immediately whirl around and roundhouse-kick whoever dared sneak up on her, she recognized the voice and instead turned calmly, with her feet securely below the waist.

"Oh! Ryouta! How are you doing? It's been a few days since you got beat up, are you feeling any better?" She asked, then dropped into a fighting stance, "And are you ready to let me beat up the gumwad that did it to you!?"

"Hiyoko, I'm... doing okay, just still a bit shaken up. And no. I think Sakuya already scared him well enough with the unexpectedly good tongue-lashing." Ryouta shrugged, "But I was going to ask you something. Do you have plans this weekend?"

"I don't have plans ever." Hiyoko stared at him as if this was the most obvious statement in the universe, "That is, unless I make them with you. Even Yuuya and Anghel seem to be busy with other things these days."

"Other things like each other." Ryouta smirked, to which Hiyoko just looked at him funny.

"Huh?" 

"Oh, nothing. In any case, I needed to ask you a favor. There's this thing called Comiket this weekend, you see. I'm working as a salesgirl for one of the big manga circles, but Anghel asked if I could help him at his booth on Sunday. So could you maybe take my place, as Anghel's salesgirl? And um, just come the other two days? I'm cosplaying for the job and I'd feel a lot safer if you were around, is all." Ryouta shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh yeah! Sure thing, Ryouta!" Hiyoko grinned, pumping her fists in the air, "It'll be fun!!"

\----------------

Nothing of particular interest seemed to occur, in the days between that conversation and the arrival of Comiket to the area. Friday and Saturday were, thankfully, mostly uneventful. Ryouta worked, Hiyoko made sure to stay where she could see him at all times, and the reality was that he encountered very little trouble at all. The closest he came to any rudeness was the occasional sweat-dripping old taco that told him in a crude and breathy voice about "Traps are super hot," a statement which Ryouta wasn't too fond of for various reasons, but one that he just had to live with. Besides, anything was better than getting beaten up.

Sunday was when things got really interesting, being that it was the day Hiyoko had a job of her own working sales at Anghel's booth. Hence, it was also the day that Anghel was there, plus his supervisor and his supervisor's "plus one" who was much more suited to supervising than the actual designated supervisor. Referring, of course, to Kazuaki and Hitori. Of course, despite one being a more capable supervisor than the other, there was certainly a lack of supervising qualities in either of them.

Hardly an hour into the day, Hitori had fallen asleep in the chair he'd been sitting in behind the booth, and Kazuaki had wandered off somewhere. Where he went? That was a mystery, but it was probably just to take a look around, because he came back a while later none the worse for wear. In that timespan, however, Hiyoko had been doing her darnedest to sell Anghel's book, seeing as she'd managed to convince him that merely sitting in silence would catch the attention of a total of no customers at all. Her method did make customers stop and look at his book, but much to mutual dismay, nobody bought it.

Of course, after Kazuaki's return to the booth, he started crying and apologizing profusely each time Anghel's manga was passed up, and soon an air of annoyance rather than disappointment fell over the other two who were involved. As it stood, only two people total ended up buying a copy through Hiyoko's efforts. Of course, a few more did, through means that will be revealed at a later time.

The first person, was Yuuya. "Yuuya? I never took you for the sort to come to Comiket..." Hiyoko mentioned when she greeted him as he approached the booth, "I sort of thought you were too smooth for an event like this, you kind of seem to outclass it..."

"Nonsense!" Yuuya chuckled, "I should think this is the perfect place for me, at least, this year. Seeing as I have a particularly dazzling sales tactic that is sure to boost the customer rate by one hundred percent!"

"Plus one, then by one hundred percent..." A sleepy voice added to the conversation, and they all turned to look at Hitori, who had hardly even woken up, "A one hundred percent increase of zero would still be zero. So it's plus one, then the increase." Kazuaki clapped quietly a bit for this deduction, then Hitori promptly fell asleep again.

"Right. What he said." Yuuya chuckled, pushing his hair back with one hand and holding out the other to Anghel, "Hiyoko, would you mind terribly stepping behind the cash box and the manga copies for a moment? Here, I'll buy one so Anghel can show you how to do it right." He made good on his word, and they made the exchange, before he grabbed Anghel's hand and pulled him a bit further out into the halls between booths, "Come then, mon amie. Time for a bit of false advertising!"

Before Hiyoko could even ask what was going on, they were already a few feet away from the booth and... kissing? What?? She was confused for only a moment though, understanding the moment they pulled apart, "Why, Crimson Angel of Judecca... My love for you burns so brightly, so why must you be so dark as you are?"

"It's not my choice, Apostle of the Violet Rose! It is the power that lies within my crimson breast which turns me now to such evildoings, even against my will!" They were being hammy, but... that was the usual for both of them anyhow, so she was a little stuck wondering what to believe other than the fact this was a great publicity stunt.

A few ridiculous lines, kisses, and a gathering crowd of wide-eyed fangirls later, Yuuya pulled some rose petals out of... somewhere, tossing them in the air before informing the girls that they should all go to that booth right over there, and buy Absolute Zero. And, with that, Hiyoko was swamped, hardly able to process the sales quickly enough, but only for about ten minutes before the crowd dispersed. Once she was no longer so busy, she glanced over to Yuuya and Anghel, who were now standing next to the booth again.

"I can't believe that worked, Yuuya! The demon spores of disappointment have been driven from my demeanor in full!" Anghel sounded enthusiastic as he looked up at Yuuya.

"Well of course it worked, mon amie. That's all girls like that really want, anyhow." Yuuya chuckled, then bent down to give Anghel a quick peck on the lips, "I'm a bit too busy today to stick around much longer, but I do wish you the best of luck." He then made his way out of the building, waving as he went. Meanwhile Anghel took his seat back, then leaned on the palm of his hand and sighed happily.

"So..." Hiyoko started, "Are you two, like, an item now or something like that?"

"Indeed, Edel Blau! Please do not feel jealous, for I realized quite suddenly that our karmic bond was, in no part, related to any form of romance; I hope you can forgive my early misconceptions."

"Oh yeah I'm fine with it. More or less. Is Yuuya really the best guy for you, is what I'm wondering."

"And... why wouldn't he be?"

"He's always flirting with people, for one thing."

"He did not flirt with you just now, did he? So you see he is a gentleman. Do not worry about me, Edel Blau. I trust the Apostle of the Violet Rose very much." Anghel reassured her, and she shrugged, returning to her salesgirl efforts.

It was only when the market was just closing that she was able to attract one more customer; Somebody she did not recognize at all, who noticed her briefly, then walked straight up to Anghel and laid a magazine down on the table with a great flourish, "You. You, my boy, I can tell, have a great talent within you."

"A talent? Nay, a curse borne of the power in my crimson breast-"

"I was referring not to your personal talent, but to your artistry. My, your hair in itself is, shall we say, a work of art! Fine art, even. Why, given the opportunity, I would hang you in a museum, my boy. So what is your name?"

"Anghel Higure, is what I prefer to be called on this earthly plane."

"Very well, very well! And I am, should you not already know, the great Nishikikouji Tohri. Famed editor and less famed, but equally talented, contemporary artist. My interest in you, however, seems to be an interest based in the prior statement. Should you like to have your work published, stop by my offices sometime next week! I have no meetings in the afternoons, so feel free to stop by anytime. I will also purchase a copy of your current manga. Thank you, goodbye!" And, just as quickly as he'd arrived, he bought the manga and was gone.

Anghel was beaming from ear to ear, but Hiyoko wasn't so sure about that guy. One look over to see how nervous Kazuaki seemed to be... well, that wasn't saying much, but for two people to feel off about someone had to mean something, right?


	10. Chapter 10

"So how was the nerd market?" Nageki asked without looking up as soon as Hitori walked in the door. 

"I wouldn't know, I was asleep the whole time." He shrugged, walking in and sitting down at the table, "Kazuaki's coming over for dinner, you can ask him. He was awake for it. Oh, I did correct somebody's math. I woke up enough to do that."

"Maybe you should change your alarm to somebody doing math badly, then I wouldn't have to wake up as early as you anymore." Nageki offered, and Hitori shrugged.

"You know, that might just work." He nodded, "I'll have to try it next weekend, when it's no big deal if it doesn't end up waking me."

"So..." Nageki closed his book, folded his hands, and looked at Hitori seriously, "When exactly were you planning to tell me that you and Kazuaki, while not in a relationship before, now are?"

"Who told you that?" Hitori asked, only to be shot down with ease by Nageki's raised eyebrows, "Okay. You're right, just this once. We started dating Monday afternoon, though, so it hasn't been very long. Plus, I'm not obligated to tell you everything about my personal life now, am I?"

"No. But given that I predicted this outcome, it would be polite if you'd let me know that I was right. Or at least, preemptively correct." Nageki sighed, "But I suppose you're right. Maybe telling me after all this time denying any attraction to him at all would just be too embarrassing. That's it, right?"

"Hm." Hitori neither confirmed nor denied it, which was just about as good as confirming it anyway.

"In any case, I'm happy for you. I think this will be good for the both of you. It's been forever since you had a date, and I can't say I think Kazuaki ever had one before... so, I say, good luck." Nageki almost smiled a bit, picking up his book and leaving the room to go upstairs.

Which was perfect timing, actually, because Hitori had hardly stood up from the table when he heard a knock on the door. Upon opening it, of course, Kazuaki was there, "Hey. Come on in." He stepped to the side, then closed the door behind him, "That was pretty quick. What was it you had to stop at your house to do, anyway?"

"Oh, you know." He shrugged, "Things."

"No, I don't know."

"Well, actually, I was checking the voicemails on my home phone. I'm thinking of moving into a better apartment so I contacted a few different leasers... it's so much work..." Kazuaki sighed, "I started it on Thursday because I was feeling unusually energized but now it's just another chore..."

"Why don't you just move in here?" Hitori asked, "I mean, you're here often enough, and we've got the space. Plus, it wouldn't even be that odd. We've been friends for years, and you're my boyfriend now, so..." When he mentioned that, Kazuaki started rubbing his face with his scarf slowly, with a still visible blush through the fabric.

"H-Hitori that's okay, really, I can get it done you don't have to-"

"I know I don't have to. I want to. I'm inviting you to live here, because I want to. I could have just offered to help you with the apartment search, but I didn't. I offered this, which means that I mean it." He somehow managed to, this time, cut off Kazuaki before the tears began, thus keeping his composure simply that of a very flustered boyfriend.

"Well if you're really cer... certain, then I can't really say that I'm... against that..." Kazuaki looked away as he said this, chuckling nervously, "As long as you really do mean it..."

"I don't lie, I never lie." Hitori assured him, grabbing his hands and holding them between their chests, "You can move in here, and not have to worry about cleaning so much, and eat real food on a regular basis. There's no downside, really, cause I get to make that food for you, and see you smile more often. Okay?"

"Okay." Kazuaki nodded.

"Wow you two. That's really gay." A voice from the doorway startled them, Hitori let go of Kazuaki's hands and they both blushed.

"Nageki! When did you... get there?" Hitori's shock quickly gave way to confusion when he started wondering how neither of them had noticed Nageki's arrival. He had been so silent.

"Only about a minute after Mr. Nanaki arrived." Nageki shrugged a bit, "I came down to ask him about Nerd Market when I heard him arrive. Speaking of, Kazuaki. How was nerd market?"

"Oh! Uh..." Kazuaki paused, staring at the ceiling, and started getting upset, "I-I'm really sorry but I'm not sure how to describe it... the student I was supervising almost sold no books at all and I felt so bad for him... He was trying his best and e-everyone just ignored him... The only time he sold anything at all was when his significant other came and dragged him into some publicity stunt, and later when a strange man offered him a slot in a magazine..."

"Wouldn't a slot in a magazine be a really good thing?" Nageki questioned, leaning against the doorframe and tilting his head.

"Well usually..." Kazuaki sniffled, crossing his arms and turning his gaze from the ceiling to the floor, nudging a loose tile with his foot, "But not in this case... I might just be overreacting but Ms. Tosaka was there and she noticed it too, that the man who offered the position was kind of... creepy."

"Creepy like how?" Nageki continued to ask, "Creepy like some people could consider me creepy for being quiet and seeming dead inside all the time, or creepy like 'I'd like to kidnap a Heather and photograph her naked in an abandoned warehouse and leave her tied up for the rats'?"

"Uh." Kazuaki's crying stopped just out of this latesy bout of Nageki-created shock and confusion, "The... second one?"

"Oh yeah that's no good." Nageki shook his head, "Did you tell him to stay away? I mean, if he would even listen to you."

"I didn't... and I don't think I can, he seemed really happy about the offer, and besides, this is just superstition. I'm sure Mr. Nishikikouji is actually a very nice man." Kazuaki responded, briefly biting the knuckle on his thumb before Hitori mumbled for him to stop before he hurt himself.

"Do what you think is best." Nageki shrugged as he dispensed history's most ambiguous advice, "Anyway, Hitori. Once Kazuaki's living here I'm not going to let you use that as an excuse to cook dinner every night. I still need to learn to cook a little better."

Hitori sighed, but nodded, "I suppose that is only fair. But I'm cooking tonight."

"Of course." Nageki nodded, giving a slightly sarcastic smile to go with his semi-sincere response, "Wouldn't want to keep you from impressing your already-impressed boyfriend."

"...I would be annoyed if he wasn't right..." Kazuaki muttered, "I-I am kind of already impressed, aren't I?"

"Well, that's the thing about dating. To be a good boyfriend I have to constantly be trying to impress you more." Hitori responded, then turned to glare at the doorway. Nageki took the hint and not only stayed quiet, but went back upstairs.

"But then... then am I not a good boyfriend...? Because I don't really have any impressive skills or-" He took a deep breath, holding back tears again.

"Kazuaki." Hitori put a hand on his shoulder, "You're here right now. You're alive. That's impressive. And I'm impressed every time you smile, I'm impressed that you were able to start looking for a new apartment, and I'll be impressed when you move in here because moving is stressful, and stressful things are like, ten times more stressful to you. So of course it's impressive when you're able to do them."

"Really?" Kazuaki questioned, a slight smile making its way onto his face.

"Really. I know how hard life is for you, so seeing you do it anyway... you're really doing a great job." 

"Hitori..." Kazuaki's eyes welled up again through his smile, "You're so... so nice..." He shook his head, a visible change in the color of his cheeks when he spoke again, "I... I want to kiss you..."

"Well, then you can kiss me." Hitori shrugged a bit, and Kazuaki gasped, smiled, blushed some more, then grabbed Hitori's scarf and kissed him. The way it may have appeared, was that Kazuaki's blush spread through contact, because in the few seconds the kiss lasted, both of them looked like lobsters. After another few seconds of silence, Hitori spoke again, "Well. Why didn't you tell me sooner, that you're such a good kisser?"

Kazuaki shrugged, "I guess because I didn't know that I'm a good kisser. Thanks, I appreciate it..."

"Heh. Anytime. Now, then, I'm going to get started on dinner."


	11. Chapter 11

"Hey! Ryouta!" A loud and feminine voice caught his attention just outside the building where Comiket had just been held, and he turned around to see Hiyoko running towards him, "Today was fun! I didn't exactly help Anghel sell anything, but it was fun, so thanks for asking me along."

"Huh? Oh, no problem! Thank you for coming! I didn't really expect anyone to give me too much trouble at a place like that, but I felt a lot safer with you around." He offered her a bright smile, "But I should probably get home and change."

"Oh, come on. Why don't you let me treat you to dinner?" Hiyoko asked, slinging an arm around him and jostling his shoulders, "No need to change first, I'll protect you with my furious fists of teen anguish! Besides, you look super adorable as a magical girl."

"Do I really?" Ryouta asked, eyes wide as he turned to look at the ground with a soft blush, "I thought I looked mediocre at best, weird at worst..."

"Well, you thought wrong!" Hiyoko laughed, "Seriously, you look... the cutest, when you dress up like this. I swear on my honor as a hunter-gatherer that I'm telling the truth!"

“Well, in that case, sure.” He chuckled a bit, “As long as one person thinks I look good like this, I don’t think that I’m going to be self-conscious. At least, not too self-conscious, that is. And who would I be to turn down a meal with my best friend?”

“So you’ll go?” Hiyoko asked, tilting her head.

“Yes, I’ll go.” Ryouta sighed, pretty sure that he’d made the answer fairly clear before, but apparently that wasn’t the case after all. And so it was that he got dragged along at top speed to… an Udon restaurant. But of course, what else could he expect of Hiyoko?

There was something rather different to be expected, however, of somebody else they encountered upon arriving at the Udon place. And for that matter, it was especially unexpected in this particular case, seeing as the person in question had been out sick from school for most of the week. The only day he’d been in school had been Wednesday, when Ryouta had been out with stomach troubles (but what else is new) so it had actually been the better part of a week since Ryouta had seen him at all; and it was an even bigger shock to see him at an Udon shop.

“Sakuya!” Hiyoko exclaimed, running up to the booth where he was seated, “Are you doing all right? Feeling any better? And what are you doing here? I never took you for the sort to sit down and enjoy a good bowl of udon!”

“You took me correctly. I’m not here for the food, I only paid so I would not be ejected for loitering. I came here because it is the only udon restaurant in town, you were bound to show up sooner or later. I have been here for five hours, and then my assumption was confirmed. You are here.” Sakuya shrugged a bit, then Hiyoko scooted into the booth on the other side of the table, Ryouta following her, “And I see you brought him along too. Good.”

“Hey.” Ryouta nodded as he sat down, “We were never at school at the same time since last Friday, so I never got the chance to properly thank you. I was a little too shocked at the time… I know that material gifts don’t mean much to you, so is there anything I can do for you to make up for, y’know, your saving my life back there?”

“Oh, shush. I didn’t save your life for your sake, I only did it because I despise cretins of any social standing behaving in such an unnecessarily violent manner…” Sakuya claimed, only to condratict himself with his very next statement, “But to… find myself so driven to action by seeing you in pain did lead me to surmise that you are possibly, what I may call… my friend. So if you wish to make it up to me, then I request that you spend more time with me, to better further this… friendship.”

“And what were you waiting to talk to me about, Sakuya?” Hiyoko asked overly loudly, basically ruining the moment.

“You…” Sakuya paused, “Well, as for you, I wanted to make a similar proposal to that which I just gave Ryouta. A request to, should you wish, spend more time together so that I might better understand these feelings that I believe to be that of a platonic bond.”

“Sakuya, did you not have friends before now?” Hiyoko asked flatly, causing Ryouta to cringe. Sakuya, meanwhile, seemed unfazed.

“Not quite. I have had friends, I have befriended those who work in my household at times, and I have befriended those in my family. And, begrudged as I am to admit it, I have befriended my half-brother as well. However, this is different.” He hesitated, then crossed his arms, “It is only out of misunderstanding that I label these feelings as platonic, seeing as I have no other name for them.” He shook his head, then sighed, “Forget it. I will be going now, I’ll speak to you again when I have sorted myself out.”

And with that, he was gone. Hiyoko and Ryouta exchanged a confused look before shrugging in tandem, then ordering their meals, the strange incident with Sakuya more or less forgotten already.

After ordering, they got to talking about the things that they saw while at Comiket. Or at least, the last day of Comiket. The first two days they spent generally together, so their adventures in sightseeing were for the most part, shared. This last day, however, was a different story. After all, they'd been on completely different ends of the exhibition hall for the duration of Sunday.

"Oh! Well, something interesting is, Anghel got invited to have his work published in some magazine, which is cool..." Hiyoko paused, took a sip of her water, then made a face, "Except that the guy who invited him to do so kinda creeped me out? It wasn't the way he was dressed, he was pretty stylish! He was just... acting weird. He said Anghel had a lot of artistic potential, but the way he said it kind of sounded like... he thought Anghel was the art, not that he could make good art?"

"Oh, there's a lot of weirdos like that at Comiket. I've worked that booth for a few years now and there's always somebody running around and making empty promises to young artists." Ryouta shrugged, "The addresses they use usually aren't real, so I guess if it is real then it's probably not a scam after all."

"Oh, all right. I was worried there." Hiyoko sighed in relief, then perked up as their udon dishes arrived.

"Sorry to be rude but... why are you sitting that way?" The waiter questioned sheepishly as he put their plates down.

"Huh? Oh, you think we're up to something scandalous! No, just we had another friend sitting on that side of the table when we got here. I can move if you want!" Hiyoko responded faster than light before shoving a pile of the noodles into her mouth.

"No, it's all right. I don't think you would be so willing to move if you were up to something, so that's proof enough for me that you're not." The waiter shrugged, went on his way, then Hiyoko burst out laughing.

"Oh my gosh, Ryouta! Can you believe he thought we were a couple?" She was practically guffawing.

"Heh yeah that's... pretty funny." He agreed halfheartedly, starting to eat.

"You okay, Ryouta? You seem off. Is your stomach bothering you again? If you can't eat your udon don't worry about it, I can take the leftovers home with me!"

"What? No, I'm fine. Just really want to focus on eating this udon. It's delicious, though you can still take my leftovers, there's no way I can eat an entire bowl."

"Thanks!"

\----  
After finishing the udon, Hiyoko walked him back to his house. He didn't say much, which she noticed, but she didn't ask him about it this time. She figured he would tell her if he wanted her to know, so she'd let it be.

Once inside, Ryouta sighed, and went straight to his mom's room, "Hey, mom, I'm back." No response. So he went in and looked around, only to find that she wasn't in there. Maybe she was feeling good enough to get up today, somehow? So he called out into the house, "Moooom??"

He got a response, but it certainly wasn't his mother, "Kid! Your mom got hospitalized earlier, and I'm apparently her emergency contact even though we haven't talked in years. So I got sent here to watch you while she's there. Just stay out of my way and don't do anything stupid, and we should get along just fine."

Ryouta figured that 'anything stupid' would have to include being dressed like this, because he recognized that voice. Through some sort of twisted fate, he recognized that voice. Rather than call back, he dashed straight to his own room, wincing as he put a little too much weight on his more-injured leg, then locked the door behind him.

The guy who'd attacked him on the street, it seemed, had the potential of becoming his legal guardian.


	12. Chapter 12

The next Wednesday after Comiket was the start of school checkups; Eye checks, ear checks, scoliosis checks, all variety of checks administered by the 'school nurse', one Doctor Shuu Iwamine. And, well, the infirmary aide Yuuya. And between those two, it was really a tossup as to who the students would prefer checking their spines for misformations. The vaguely creepy but world-renown doctor, or the local flirt? Given that nobody could make up their minds, it turned out to be random selection for the most part.

Well, excluding Hiyoko, Anghel, Ryouta, and a few others who insisted on being examined by Yuuya. Of those few others, one might note that any student who requested a private screening also requested the infirmary aid; nobody requested Shuu, but most others weren't firmly against him either. Excluding of course, those who had private screenings, plus Ryouta. Ryouta had his own reasons to avoid seeing the real doctor at this point in time, and he understood that Hiyoko probably felt more comfortable with somebody who was at least her age (and of course, being the one girl in the school, her's was private by default) but he wasn't quite sure about Anghel and the handful of others who wanted privacy; or at least, he never had been before.

Now, he entertained the idea that perhaps those others had something to hide, but he wouldn't go to the liberty of assuming what that could be, because there were all sorts of potentials. Skin conditions, embarrassment, ridiculously offputting amounts of chest hair, or even breasts. It was possible, he was sure. After all, Hiyoko got into the school, so clearly they didn't too much investigation into the matter of gender. And perhaps, any of the above feared what Dr. Iwamine might say, given his track record of taking a deep interest in any students he considered an anomaly. He wasn't going to pry, however. After all, he didn't want anyone prying about his reasons either.

And, luckily for him, Yuuya didn't ask any questions. Of course, Ryouta's screening wasn't even private, but he did request Yuuya specifically, which could have raised some suspicion. As it was, however, Yuuya maintained a friendly and professional manner before sending Ryouta back into the hallway. Classes were technically happening today, but given the number of people who would always cut class anyhow, none of the teachers bothered to mark anybody absent. As long as they stayed on campus, it was basically a free day to do as they pleased.

Outside in the hallway, Ryouta found Sakuya standing there, "Oh, Sakuya. Have you already had your checkup?"

"Well, you could say that." Sakuya shrugged, "I had my family doctor issue a form letting the school know that I had already had a checkup of similar nature this year. Did you honestly think that a Le Bel would allow for either of those ingrates to perform a half-baked examination? Of course not."

"I'd hardly say that Dr. Iwamine's practice is half-baked. It may deserve several malpractice suits and be dangerous for his patient, but he doesn't... make mistakes." Ryouta sighed, "I mean when he wants to be, he really is a good doctor. He's skilled."

"What do you mean by saying he makes no mistakes? Are you really so privy to his decision-making that you'd know that?" Sakuya questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yes, basically." He shrugged, pushing his tongue up against one of his cheeks before continuing, "I spend too much time in his office not to know what goes on in there. Even more time than Yuuya. With my stomach troubles and all. But the thing is... you only ever hear rumors, don't you? No missing person reports, no real media coverage. Only hearsay, that somebody's disappeared. That, I don't know how he does, but I have to assume he only makes research subjects out of people who won't be missed anyway..." He trailed off, then looked back up at Sakuya with a sheepish smile, "That's pretty morbid, huh? I have to wonder if I'll be next, when my mom dies. She's the only one who'd miss me, anyway..."

"Now, that's simply not true." Sakuya spoke indignantly, taking a step back and shaking his head with a vehement composition, "Hiyoko, for example. I know for certain that she would miss you very much. And loathe as I am to say it, I believe my life would be... less splendid, if you were not in it. Only mildly, but that must count for something." He sighed, "If you were to be killed by that doctor, I dare say I might hire an assassin in revenge. And for a Le Bel to say that holds much more meaning; revenge is a notoriously non-noble desire."

"Well, thanks, but I really don't think that Hiyoko would care all that much if I was to disappear... I don't know."

"You must jest. If you were to disappear, I have reason to believe her entire world would be shaken to its roots. Why, whenever she isn't speaking of Udon or Hunter-Gatherer things, she's talking about you. It can be, at times, rather annoying."

Ryouta didn't get the chance to respond, because a hand fell on his shoulder. He squeaked in surprise before the person spoke, "Why, Kawara. May I speak to you for a moment?" Shuu's soft voice fell into the hallway. Sakuya looked briefly concerned, but Ryouta's smile assured him it was okay, and he left them alone. Ryouta couldn't say he wasn't expecting what Shuu said next, "Is your stomach, by chance, doing better? It has been over a week since you last visited the infirmary."

"What? Oh, yeah. That's it." He answered entirely unconvincingly.

"Are you sure that you aren't avoiding me for other reasons?" Shuu questioned, turning him around and looking him over, "Perhaps some other injury you've been trying to keep to yourself...?" He looked back at Ryouta's face knowingly.

"What do you care anyway?" He asked, glancing away, the eye contact making him uncomfortable.

"I'm worried." He certainly didn't sound worried. Did Shuu even show any emotion ever, besides that intimidating laughter of his? Ryouta had never seen it.

"Yeah right. I'm gonna go now, okay? I'm fine." Ryouta sighed and turned around again, walking away from Shuu. The doctor's fascination with him was frankly, very offputting. Little could he know that this interest had nothing to do with dissection and everything to do with some sort of honor-based dedication to never breaking a promise.

\-----

Later that evening, while Ryouta was once more locked up in his room, he checked his phone only to find that Sakuya had added him and Hiyoko to a group chat.

-6:13 PM-  
HI: Whoa! Sakuya, what's this!?  
HI: You finally relented to sharing your phone bill's space with us riffraff?  
SA: I told you I would get back to you when I sorted out my feelings.  
SA: And I did.  
HI: Oh! Let me guess! You realized we aren't just friends, but best friends?  
SA: Not... quite.  
RY: So what is it?  
SA: Oh good, you're both here.  
HI: Ryouuuuuuta!!!!! *hugs*  
RY: What  
HI: It means I'm pretending to hug you through the phone!  
HI: Fancy McFeathers here has something important to tell us, apparently.  
RY: I know. I can read the logs from before I joined the conversation.  
SA: Do not refer to a Le Bel as "McFeathers".  
HI: Yeah, or else what?  
SA: Or else nothing. Just do not do it.  
HI: So get to the point and tell us!  
SA: I would have by now had you not kept adding in your inane commentary.  
SA: See, I took the time to ruminate over the past few days on the way I felt, and I came to a higher understanding of my emotions.  
SA: What I feel is in no way platonic.  
SA: Or, I do feel platonically towards you, but that is not what this particular feeling is.  
SA: I think them to be... Romantic feelings.  
HI: Wait a second  
HI: For both of us?????  
RY: Are you sure you know what that word means  
SA: Just because I do not know how to eat a hamburger does not mean I am clueless in all walks of life.  
SA: This is only an emotion I never before experienced.  
SA: Now that I have determined what it is, I am certain in my conclusion.  
HI: Oh I see!  
HI: Well, why don't we all just date then?  
RY: Huh?  
HI: Well Sakuya likes me and Ryouta.  
HI: I like Ryouta and Sakuya.  
HI: So if you agree, Ryouta...  
HI: We can be boyfriend and boyfriend and girlfriend!  
RY: Wait a second you  
RY: You like me?  
SA: Yes.  
HI: Yeah!  
RY: Oh.  
RY: Well this was... unexpected.  
HI: But not bad, right?  
RY: No...  
RY: Not bad at all.  
HI: Sweet! <3  
SA: I did not realize such a simple solution existed. I am glad for it.  
SA: How do I make this heart symbol?  
HI: It's the less-than bracket and a three!  
SA: <3 Excellent.  
RY: The simple solution only exists thanks to Hiyoko.   
RY: But I'm glad too!  
RY: <3

-  
Ryouta scrolled back to the top of the chat, read through the whole thing, then held his phone to his chest and stared up at the ceiling. At least one thing was going right, right now.


	13. Chapter 13

Sakuya Le Bel Shirogane had been well-bred. and well-raised, taught in all walks of life to keep a worthy composure. Regardless of if this continued to work when he got annoyed, he was generally very good at it. So it was that, despite any happiness he may have been feeling, nothing more than a modest smile crossed his face. It stayed for the duration of the continued conversation, but vanished as soon as he was called down to dinner. Le Bel family dinners were a weekly occurrence, each Wednesday, and they were practically business meetings. To arrive at one with any sort of emotion was to jeopardize one's good standing among the rest of the family for a while yet.

He had grown increasingly good at managing these family dinners of course, arriving promptly after he was called down. Despite being the chosen heir, as the youngest sibling he was the last one to be directly addressed by his father, which always left a building level of thick tension in the air as he awaited his own weekly verbal dressing-down. His was never all too harsh, seeing as he was the favorite, but he was always left sweating under his collar by the time his father got to him anyhow.

Or at least, that was how it usually went, but this time he sat down only to see his father's eyes boring right into him. At first it was only him, but as the others noticed, they all turned to look as well. It was midway between these two points that Sakuya actually took a good look around. Aside from the tablecloth, this table was in no way prepared to eat dinner on despite the weekly tradition. There were no napkins, silverware, plates, or even glasses. And certainly no food. He didn't budge, though. For all he knew, this could be some test set to see if he could keep his cool in even such a surreal situation as this.

One where he was supposedly called down to dinner only to find nothing there, one where he was being stared at by each member of the family who had moved to this particular location (As some stayed in France). One where his father looked so genuinely angry. It left him wondering what he could have possibly done to upset him; he stepped on eggshells constantly. He stopped playing piano in the house when his father berated the arts. He followed each and every etiquette lesson and custom of nobility to the very letter. He had always been a bit bratty, but that had never been an issue before.

He didn't waver. Hardly blinked. Kept a blank expression and kept from sweating just enough to keep it from being noticeable.

"Now, Sakuya." His father began, his tone deep and intimidating, "I would like to ask you what gave you the impression that your recent behavior is in any way fitting of a member of the Le Bel household."

"I-" He began to say that he was very sorry, and that he didn't understand, but he was cut off the minute he started.

"There's no need to answer that. Because I can answer it for you. The truth of the matter is that your behavior is completely unfitting of one of your status. It is this sort of entanglement that leads to reputation-shattering scandals, and the heir of the Le Bel house cannot, I repeat, cannot put himself into such a position." He closed his eyes before saying the next bit, "And beyond that, this activity of yours is... incredibly shameful. Something like this would not only jeopardize your position as the heir to the household, but as a Le Bel at all. To enter into a romantic relationship with two people simultaneously, and, not to mention the issue of gender..." He was unwavering in his scariness and seriousness as he pointed to the door, "Sakuya. You are no longer welcome in this house."

"W-What?" He couldn't help but stammer, confused, as he pushed his hands against the arms of the chair he was seated in.

"You heard me. And if you were wondering how it is that we found out, it's incredibly simple. Did you really think that, as the upper class of this world, we would not be monitoring our children for any sort of base activity? Of course, we saw every word of that conversation you had. And we do not approve. So you need to leave."

"You... You can't do this to me...!" Sakuya insisted, standing up suddenly, "To... To turn me out at the first sign of trouble, when I have been nothing if not the perfect son prior to this afternoon?"

"I can, and I am." 

"That's..." Sakuya gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down, but instead each breath through his lungs only made him more furious. So rather than returning to a composed state as he would have preferred, he did the exact opposite. He broke. And he screamed. "That's bullshit! I... I spent my entire life trying to please you! I spent all my time doing exactly what I was told, sacrificing my wants and needs for that of the Le Bel household, and this is what I get for it?? One strike and I'm out!?"

"That is correct. Leave, or I will have you thrown out." His father's expression didn't change at all, and Sakuya just started crying. He wouldn't let him see that, though. So he turned around. He turned around and he walked out the door and he only kept on walking until he reached a destination he wasn't even aware of until he got there. And why he was there, was too a mystery until the moment he knocked on the door, and there stood his half-brother.

"Yuuya. I have made an awful mistake and I now have nowhere to go." He took a deep breath, "I would normally never ask for your help, or make to be kind to you, but I suppose I should get to valuing that family which I still have. Seeing as I have, as of twenty minutes ago, been disowned from the Le Bel family."


	14. Chapter 14

Sakuya was welcomed into Yuuya's home with open arms, if almost a bit too open. He wasn't too fond of just how happy his half-brother seemed to be that he'd come running to him in his time of crisis, but he supposed that was just how things were.

Weeks passed by. Halloween came and went, an occasion which was hardly even worth mentioning. Ryouta and Sakuya went over to Hiyoko's cave and watched scary movies, but none of the other people in town that they were very well acquainted with did anything for the holiday.

Not even... Anghel... Which was, to anybody who had met him for even five seconds, a strange happenstance. For somebody like him to not be all over such a holiday in some way or another was shocking at best and disturbing at worst, a fact which did not go unnoticed by one particular person who found himself unable to even get in contact with him that night, no matter how he tried, until well past midnight when he finally got a response text. One single response text.

Anghel's messages, especially his messages to Yuuya, were usually so long that they were automatically split up into at least five different messages by the system. So, when Yuuya was woken up in the middle of the night by only one instance of his text tone, he knew something was wrong. The text itself only confirmed that.

"I'm sorry." 

And that wasn't the first sign that something was wrong.  
-  
The morning of November 1st was a brisk and chilly one, as November was and always had been the month when any typical temperate environment cast of the final throes of summer sun and descended a nasty chill that was only a prelude to winter. And, without enough winter clothes to equip three people, Hiyoko was left chilly with nothing but earmuffs added to her school uniform. The reason being, of course, that after all of those scary movies neither Ryouta nor Sakuya felt particularly keen on the idea of walking home at that hour, in the dark, and they were comfortable there anyway...

So now she was freezing her toes off for the sake of her two fragile-as-hell boyfriends. At least her ears were doing okay, and given that Ryouta received her mittens and Sakuya her gloves, her hands were mildly warm considering she was walking between both of them, and by extension, holding their hands. Her earmuffs had the added benefit of letting her ignore them as they talked about the English assignment they were supposed to do. She didn't care about that! She'd bother with schoolwork when she started failing, and as of right now, she had a pretty good C+ average hovering around. That was good enough!

In any case they arrived at school very quickly, at which point she immediately ran and dragged the others indoors before releasing their hands to pull her earmuffs off of her head, "New plan. Next time you stay overnight, bring your own coats." She sighed, giving them both glares.

"Well we weren't expecting to... and it was so nice when we went over there yesterday afternoon. Should we bring our coats every time we visit you? I mean, I can. I'm just clarifying." Ryouta responded, going to put Hiyoko's windbreaker he'd borrowed up in the school's coat closet by the front door.

"I do not currently even own a coat." Sakuya added, "Unless I am to borrow one from Yuuya, but I should think your intention is to cut down on any and all borrowing."

"Nah, just your borrowing my things. I bet Yuuya has something like five different coats. He always looks pretty snazzy when I see him out around town, so I can't imagine he doesn't coordinate his coats too, right?" Hiyoko questioned from the ground, having leaned down to fix the heel of her shoe.

"You... are correct in this assessment, yes. But it is..." Sakuya adjusted his collar awkwardly.

"Embarrassing to ask for help? But you gotta." Ryouta shrugged, "You'll never get back on your feet if you don't ask for help sometimes."

"Says the crown prince of never asking for help when he needs it." Sakuya retorted, and Ryouta took a step back, his playful expression fading, "Oh. I... apologize. I suppose that was rude of me."

"It's okay." His upbeat demeanor had now vanished and, with all the garments he'd borrowed now in the coat closet, he turned to leave, "I'm going to head to homeroom," and was gone.

"Are the homerooms even open this early?" Hiyoko wondered aloud, before turning more particularly to Sakuya, "Don't worry about him. You were right, and that's why he got upset. Maybe now he actually will tell us what's going on. But you better set a good example and stop being so afraid to ask Yuuya for things, too, Mister!"

"Very well..." Sakuya sighed, then suddenly squinted, looking over at the stairwell, "Isn't that... that boy in the other second year class who calls you that ridiculous nickname? How long as he been standing there? He looks to be upset, or some other negative emotion, I think."

"Hm?" Hiyoko turned around and spotted him herself, then called out, "Anghel! How long have you been standing there?? You can come over and talk to me if you want to!" All he did was continue to stand there, so she walked right up to him and waved her open palm in front of his face, "Helllooooo? Earth to Space Cadet!"

"Oh." He finally snapped out of whatever haze he was in, and his voice was... quiet. Way too quiet compared to his usual, and the exact opposite when it came to quantity of inflection, "Sorry, Hiyoko. I'm just a bit out of it today. I didn't get much sleep..."

"More than a little bit out of it, I'd say! Where did all your anghelisms get to? And since when did you ever call me Hiyoko? You're talking like a normal person!" She was concerned for him, but only coming across as harsh.

"Well. I've been like this for a few weeks now. Since a little after Comiket." He shrugged, "There's no point believing in that dumb stuff anymore. It's not real. Edel Blau, the Crimson Angel... I made it up. I made it all up. To hide. To make friends that wouldn't think I'm weird. But it didn't help me after all. So why would I keep it up?"

"Anghel..." Hiyoko stared at him in disbelief, then shook her head, and grabbed his wrist, pulling him along as she ran at top speed over to the infirmary, "You must be really ill to say something like that! You're not acting like yourself at all!"

"Hiyoko... That place..." He started to protest, but then stopped, "Okay. It's not like it matters anyway." He pried her hand from his wrist, then stepped into the infirmary of his own volition. She hadn't only made her decision based on his behavior, of course. When she grabbed his wrist, it was really warm. Too warm, even when considering her own chilliness. And with how spacey he was, it certainly wasn't out of the question to assume that he might have a fever.

With that done with, and plenty of time still before homeroom, Hiyoko returned to the main hall, only to see Yuuya right as he walked in the door. She had an idea so quickly that she again dashed over to his side, already spending more time running today than anybody she knew. Exercise was important though, so she didn't mind at all, "Yuuya! I'm glad I bumped into you. Anghel was just telling me that he's been talking like a normal person for weeks now. Since you're his boyfriend, can you tell me if that's true?"

He paused, then sighed, "Unfortunately, yes. You seem worried. Do not doubt, I do too, but I can't get him to tell me what's wrong. I can hardly get him to talk to me at all, actually. I worry as to what may have happened to him to cause this change..."

"Well, we can hope it's just a fever, right? I brought him to the infirmary, so if it's some sort of sickness I think he'll be fine! Doctor Iwamine is-" She couldn't even finish her statement before Yuuya had pushed past her, taking off at full tilt towards the very location she'd just mentioned.

It sure was sweet of him, to worry about his boyfriend so much.


	15. Chapter 15

The doors to the infirmary closed behind Yoshio Agaki with an unsatisfyingly benign whoosh sound. You know, the sound doors with those plastic insulation things around the edges make when they close. Because the infirmary had those. In any case, the sound was not menacing at all. However, the subsequent sound was. The sound of a button on a doorknob being pushed in, and the lock clicking into place and; well honestly that sound wasn't very scary either. These doors were not well-suited to being frightening. However, the implications of that locking noise were more than enough to make up for the noise's own lack of ferocity.

"Ho ho." A deep laugh sounded directly behind Yoshio, and he didn't flinch in the slightest at first, until he felt breathing down his neck, which made his shoulders hunch up, and his hands lifted as well till they were holding the sides of his head, "So you did end up here eventually, Yoshio Agaki."

"I guess I did." Yoshio's voice was just as blank as it had been when talking to Hiyoko earlier, despite his fairly tortured-seeming pose, "So I guess you're going to kill me now, aren't you?" He asked, then added one more question, "And why did you want me here so badly?"

"Why did I want you here? It's simple." The doctor answered simply, pulling on a pair of latex gloves which were not quite tight enough to make a comically nasty snapping sound, "It's not every day that I get to study the female form, seeing as this is an all-boy's school by principal. And don't ask me how I figured it out, that should be obvious. I'm a doctor. I know the human body better than anybody else. So I know a bound chest when I see it, too." He lifted up a needle, stepping towards Yoshio, who took a step backwards only to fall back onto one of the infirmary cots.

"And yes, Yoshio. I'm going to kill you know." Shuu chuckled a bit, shaking his head, "See this needle? This will go into your spine, administering a local anaesthetic directly to your nervous system. It's quite the procedure, but to make it short and simple, you get to be awake, though entirely numb, throughout the process of this dissection. Well, until the blood loss kills you anyway."

"So why can't you just... kill me quick and get it over with?" He asked, feeling the slightest bit of fear at the idea of being awake for the procedure which would ultimately lead to his death. But then again, he supposed that was only to be expected; Up until recently, he'd have hardly expected to be killed by Dr. Iwamine at all, nor would he have referred to him as Dr. Iwamine...

But wouldn't the outcome have been the same, anyway? To be defeated like this was just as palpable as to be defeated by Sorcerer Wallenstein and the Blight Tree Rufa. He was just being more realistic now, that was all.

He felt the needle go in, and that was all. Clearly his request had been denied, as he could immediately feel the effects... or rather, not feel, of the anaesthetic. It was a strange feeling, as if his entire body had had its bones removed and he was suddenly just a puddle of skin and whatever else was left. After about five minutes, it seemed to have gotten into every little nook and cranny of his nervous system. He couldn't feel a thing below his neck, and Shuu knew that too, clearly, as he was approaching now with a scalpel. He pulled open Yoshio's uniform, but didn't do much of any other undressing just yet, instead starting right in with a clean cut right across Yoshio's stomach.

He didn't feel it, not at all, and it wasn't like he could see it either, what with his practical immobility while being laid down on his back. So this was how it was going to end. The legend of the Crimson Angel of Judecca, no. Only the life of one unimportant person. And it wouldn't even hurt, no. He'd just bleed out like this, and then he would be gone.

But a key turned in the lock from the other side. The sound of the button popping back out was masked by the sound of the door being swung open quickly, then closed again in record time. Yoshio didn't have to look to see who it was. There was only one other person in the school with a key to the infirmary. The aid.

A voice confirmed his theory, "Dr. Shuu Iwamine..." It was a tone he'd never heard before, but it unmistakably belonged to Yuuya Sakazaki. Upon hearing the sound of metal scraping on a counter suddenly, he assumed that Shuu had grabbed a weapon. He was proved wrong by the loud noise of his boyfriend yelling, "I'm going... to kill you..."

"Not if I kill you first." Shuu responded calmly, and something else was picked up off of some counter, but before the sound was even done, there was more shouting.

"I think, you underestimate just how angry I am right now!" These words were followed directly by a gutteral noise, a thump, and then silence. Whoever was still standing was holding their breath. Until he was anymore, letting it out then taking labored breaths, the sort of breathing that only a furious person ever happened to have. Yoshio noticed that the needle had been pulled out when he started, however slightly, to feel something again. It wouldn't take too long to wear off, but Yuuya picked him up anyways. He looked franctic, but Yoshio looked back up at him blankly.

"Anghel...? Are you okay?" Yuuya questioned, the anger from before now turned only to a franctic concern.

"I guess..." He muttered. Now that he'd been moved, the cut in his stomach started bleeding some more, and he was slurring his words, "Just call me Yoshio... okay...? I'm not Anghel or... anybody special at all... I'm just Yoshio."

Yuuya couldn't even answer that, but his face said all he ever could anyhow. For Yoshio to say something like that, was... pathetic. He was taken aback and worried as hell and driven near to tears, all at once. So instead of answering, he just held Yoshio closer to himself and opened the door. There was an empty science classroom just across the hall, if he could get over there he could start to sort this out. He just had to get away from that. From... the body.

In his haste, he hadn't quite counted on the potential of the hallway being anything but empty. And so it was that, covered in blood and carrying somebody who was practically unconscious, he came immediately face to face with two teachers.


	16. Chapter 16

"Uh. Eh." Kazuaki was stunned speechless for a few seconds before bursting out into tears and taking a few steps back, clearly terrified as he bawled way too loudly, "W-W-What's going on?? What are you doing, did you kill him!? Are you going to kill us too because we saw you!??"

"Kazuaki." Hitori was, however, incredibly calm as he grabbed Kazuaki's arm, "Stop being ridiculous. Of course Mr. Sakazaki didn't kill Higure. Just look at Higure anyhow. He's obviously living, and he only has one visible injury. There's too much blood for that. And Sakazaki isn't going to kill us, either. I'm guessing if he did kill somebody, it's somebody who's deserved to die for a while now."

"But sometimes I deserve to die, so is he going to-" Kazuaki started again, and was cut off, this time by Yuuya himself.

"No." He shook his head, sighing, "Mr. Nanaki, I killed Dr. Iwamine. I will admit that, right here and now. I need to get Anghel into that science classroom across the way, then I'll get my thoughts sorted out and explain everything. Will you and Mr. Uzune help me?"

"And become accessories to murder??" Kazuaki questioned, shaking his head, "That's a crime!"

"Of course we will." Hitori answered.

"What!?"

"Kazuaki, our job as teachers is to educate the student body, but our role as educators is to not only teach the students, but do all that we can for their health, safety, and happiness." Hitori explained, before turning around and opening the door to the science room, "Go on and get him in there before anybody else sees you." Yuuya nodded and went inside, nervously trailed by Kazuaki and confidently followed by Hitori, who shut the door behind himself once he was in then walked up to the table Yuuya had laid Anghel down on, "So what exactly happened?"

"I..." Yuuya sighed, then inhaled just as deeply, "I heard from a friend of mine that she'd sent Anghel to the infirmary, which was a frightening thought given what I know of Shuu Iwamine. I took off for the infirmary, turning on the bug I had on Dr. Iwamine to confirm my fears before I jumped to conclusions. However, it turned out I was entirely correct. He did plan to dissect Anghel; and I could have done without the bug after all, because all it accomplished was making me so angry that I couldn't think straight."

"What made you so angry? What did he say?" Hitori asked, "No matter what it is, you can tell me. I am notoriously open-minded. And considering I kept calm through seeing you with him and covered in blood, and that talk of murder, I believe you can confide in me."

"He was," Yuuya grimaced, leaning against the table. Anghel had passed out by now, midway through the anaesthetic wearing off, "He was taunting him, mocking him. Making fun of him for his gender, he called him a girl." He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down as mentioning that brought the anger back, but only succeeded in changing that anger to a crashing wave of worry, "And Anghel didn't sound like he cared. He sounded like he was just, okay, with dying. And he's been acting weird like that a lot lately, not acting like he usually does at all, and I'm really worried about him, and I don't even have any idea what could have happened to him. What changed?"

"I..." Kazuaki joined the conversation, staring at the ground, "I might have... a theory..."

"Really? Please, do share." Yuuya, upon having heard the chance of an explanation, immediately turned to Kazuaki, his eyes pleading and desperate.

"Tohri Nishikikouji." He answered, pressing his hands together with a wobbling lip, but his eyes were at least barely watering. He was trying to remain at least a little professional in this situation, "At Comiket... Mr. Nishikikouji told Anghel to meet with him to discuss publication in a magazine... That's all I can think of, for what might have changed in the past few weeks."

"Okay. Thank you." Yuuya nodded, then went over to the sink and washed his hands and face as best he could. He pulled off the outer layer of his uniform's shirt, and as for the pants... he rolled them up, and on his legs at the general location of each bloodstain, cut a short gash with a piece of glass only to bandage it straight away. The teachers both winced as he did this, but he explained, "It's to give me plausibility. Can you keep an eye on Anghel for me? There's somebody I need to speak with." Hitori nodded, and that was good enough for him. He carefully left the classroom, then ran to the Janitor's closet, throwing the door open, "Leone! I need you to find me all the information you can on Tohri Nishikikouji! Any sort of illegal activity, I have to know it."

Mr. One simply nodded and opened his laptop, not even stopping to question why Yuuya needed this information, because he sounded like it was important. After ten minutes passed, he announced that he had something, and beckoned Yuuya over, "I found this. Looks like he's running some sort of underground art website, it's pretty creepy stuff. It's gotten flagged for underaged pornography, but it was purchased in international waters, through several proxies, it's impossible through the site itself to find out who created it and if it's even technically illegal where it is. However, I was able to find the receipt of purchase for the domain name in the database for an accounting service he used several years ago. His only mistake in hiding it was using his actual name rather than a fake one to make the purchase. It seems that he posts a new gallery every year, all full of similarly terrifying things. Here's the most recent one."

Yuuya leaned closer to the screen as Leone clicked it open. One look at it, and he gagged, covering his mouth to keep from barfing on the spot. A surge of emotions passed through him, none of them good. All of them increasing the urge to vomit, to cry, to scream, all of the above.

\---  
"Good to see that you've woken up, Anghel Higure." The sound of the voice which greeted him was kind, the face smiling, but that was where any sort of compassion of comfort ended, considering four facts that Anghel was painfully aware of.

1\. He was not clothed.  
2\. His wrists, elbows, and knees were tied, limiting his range of motion greatly, and he was gagged.  
3\. Tohri Nishikikouji, who was now behaving so politely, had drugged him. Had done this to him.  
4\. The previously mentioned person was taking photographs.

"Oh, yes. You look absolutely terrified." The camera flashed, "See, I'm ever so sorry to do this to you, but I just couldn't resist your artistic potential. You are, perhaps, the perfect subject..." He crouched down, snapped another picture, "And desperation makes the perfect art. It's a fact, really. True terror is something so rarely captured that it has crossed the line into utter beauty."

"You have nothing to say to that? Oh, of course, you can't speak at the moment. But your eyes, they do say it all. Speaking off, they are very pretty when they are dull. I painted you, while you were out. I couldn't do that now, though. Not with you shivering like this, too much movement for a good painting, and besides. Only photography can truly capture these stupendous moments of pure, unadulterated fear."

"But, you know, Anghel..." Tohri paced around him in a circle, "I think there's still something missing, from the perfect picture, don't you?" He stopped in his tracks, "Now I could always use white paint, but that just doesn't have the artistic flair of using the real thing. And I think I could make you look even more desperate, after all, if I were to, perhaps... fuck you?"

\-------------

Yuuya clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he looked at the screen, before squeezing his eyes shut and turning suddenly, punching the wall with what started as a frustrated shout but turned quickly into a sob. Still standing with one fist indented into the wall, he brought his other hand up to cover his face, shaking his head and muttering under his breath, "God, Anghel... How could I have let this happen..."

\----------

"Oh, and one more thing, Anghel. Don't you go telling anybody about this, and don't go breaking our appointment next week either. You saw how many pictures I was taking. I have the power to ruin your life."

That is, he would if he hadn't already.

\-------------  
Yuuya dropped to his knees, curled over with his face in his hands, tears falling right through his fingers. He took a deep breath, then another, then with measured words and a resolute tone, he spoke.

"I'm going to kill Tohri Nishikikouji."


	17. Chapter 17

The world was on hold.

Everything had ground to a stop in that moment and nothing but one particular goal was important anymore, nothing held any meaning to him but that one thought which pervaded his mind and filled all of his senses with a sort of sickly red pounding. He had thought he was angry at Shuu, but this was even worse. This was a million times worse. With Shuu it had only been a few brief moments of pure fury which, when unbridled, led him to rash actions. This was different, and so much worse. It was as if his anger had entirely taken him over, and it was not about to subside anytime soon.

He was not going to go to class, that was currently… unimportant. To deal with the body of the doctor in the infirmary briefly crossed his mind, but even something like that went against every part of his being in this moment. Besides… he wasn’t sure how he knew this, but he was sure that Hitori would be willing and capable of doing it for him. When he stood up again and left the maintenance room, he went straight towards the front entrance, steps deliberate and fast. The upper part of his body made it seem almost like he was just stumbling forward, but in this haze it took every bit of willpower only to stay upright and go to the entrance. He had to get out of here. He had to find that bastard, he had to find his enemy.

The bell rang for homeroom, and he found himself moving against the tide. He was ignored by most, of course, until he was stopped by Sakuya on the stairs, “Yuuya?” He asked, actually looking concerned for once in his life, “You look awful, and I don’t mean that in the traditional sense. Did something happen?”

“Yeah, something happened.” Yuuya muttered, took another step forward, then fell down the stairs. It didn’t hurt at all, of course it didn’t. He couldn’t afford pain, not right now, not in a situation like this. He stood up right away, only to find that Sakuya had run down the stairs and grabbed his shoulder just as soon as he got to his feet. He actually seemed kind of… worried. Any other time, Yuuya would be incredibly touched by this fact. Not now, though. Not now.

“Well, why don’t you tell me what this something is rather than just toppling over? I cannot offer my aid if I don’t know what the problem is.” Sakuya frowned, trying to look at his half-brother’s face only to find that he was mostly expressionless, his eyes glazed over with a particular sort of cold hardness that could universally be noted as ‘This organism is currently dangerous’. That was only that much more worrying, “Listen. Perhaps in the past I behaved harshly towards you, but that was in some level a habit instilled on me through necessity. Regardless of what impression I may give you, I do care about your well-being. You are, after all, the only relative who has ever cared about mine.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, Sakuya…” Yuuya responded softly with an awkwardly sideways nod, “But you can’t help me with this. No. Nobody can. There’s something that I have to do, and I won’t rest until I do it. Until I accomplish my goal.”

“But what is this goal? You never know if somebody may be able to help you after all.” Sakuya continued to question him, and Yuuya shook his head.

“No. I am grateful, very grateful… but this is beyond you… it’s beyond me too, honestly…” He spoke as if he was in an entirely different world, “This is the sort of thing I never expected to do, and I expected to do a lot of things. I need to do it, but I won’t get you involved.”

“...All right.” Sakuya said, hesitantly backing off.

“Oh, and Sakuya?” Yuuya started again, “I don’t believe I’ll be returning home after this. The police might question you, just tell them the truth. You can stay there as long as you need to, the house is paid for for ten years from now.”

“You… won’t be coming back?” Sakuya furrowed his eyebrows, shaking his head in confusion, “Yuuya, exactly what sort of dangerous scheme are you getting yourself into this time? Is it for your job? You know, it’s against the law to deny you the right to turn down assignments. I researched it.”

“No, it’s not for my job. If it was for my job, I would refuse it, but I can’t. It’s for revenge, and I can’t refuse that. After all, the Sakazaki’s are quite vengeful. It’s in our blood.” And with that, Yuuya was gone, leaving Sakuya standing in the entrance of the school building, stunned into silence by the particular inflection. As if, by saying that, Yuuya was telling him something important. Or attempting to convey a message of importance, that is.

What it was, he wasn’t quite sure of, but he was sure that he’d figure it out someday; no, that Yuuya would explain it to him someday. Of course he would.

\------

There was a dreadful clatter as the doors to the office building were thrown open, and the receptionist even flinched. Nobody ever stormed in, so this was quite the new experience, and it left her wondering why exactly they even had doors that were flimsy enough to clatter like that. The thought, however, was incredibly brief, because she was immediately following left wondering what was up with the person who had thrown the doors open in such a matter.

Yuuya stormed up to the desk, took a deep breath, then spoke while staring at the floor, “I need to see Tohri Nishikikouji.”

“I’m sorry, he is in a meeting right-”

“It’s incredibly important.” Yuuya’s voice was monotonous, but he slammed his hands down on the desk and looked her in the eyes. She recoiled slightly, then nervously picked up the phone and called up.

“Mr. Nishikikouji? There’s somebody here to see you. I know that you’re in a meeting right now, but he’s made it clear the he absolutely has to see you right now. Yes, immediately. Your office? Okay.” She hung up, then turned back to Yuuya, “Room 1407. He will see you just as soon as you arrive.”

“Thanks.” He nodded, then went to the elevator and pushed the correct button. The fourteenth floor, which, he noted, was actually the thirteenth. One of those buildings which ‘left out’ floor thirteen out of superstition. Of course, that didn’t change the fact that floor fourteen really was the thirteenth, but whatever worked.

When the elevator opened, he went straight to the office. Unless the others on either side of it, the entire far wall was made up of one huge windowpane. The remaining walls were covered in some sort of strange surrealist art pieces, as was the floor in two senses. The carpet itself seemed to be some sort of art piece, and he had several modern art sculptures strewn about without rhyme or reason. Tohri Nishikikouji was seated at his desk (which was also a piece of art) in his ridiculous artsy chair, with artistic knicknacks scattered over it. All in all, it was clear that Tohri had a very skewed appreciation for art. But Yuuya knew that already. After all, this was the man who considered something like… that. To be art. His blood was boiling, but he made himself be calm.

“Hello, Tohri Nishikikouji.” He greeted him in a collected tone, “I’m here to discuss something with you.”

“Well, given how urgent it seemed to be, I certainly hope that this discussion is worth my time. I’m missing a meeting discussing the artwork of a very promising young person right now. Why, you don’t look all that old yourself. So I do hope you regret sullying the prospects for a peer of yours. In any case, though, that is in the past now, and my meeting for this timeslot is now instead with you.” Tohri’s words set Yuuya’s fingers twitching slightly, an invisible reaction to the fact that he was clearly talking about Anghel.

“I wouldn’t quite say that I would consider this to be a meeting in the traditional sense, Mr. Nishikikouji,” He pressed his lips together. Reminded himself not to jump the gun. Reminded himself that his enemy had to understand exactly what he deserved before getting it.

“You wouldn’t? If not a meeting, then what is this? You are certainly too uptight to be here only to discuss art of something unprofessional and interesting as that. So why?” Tohri stood up as he asked this, striding partially across the room.

“I know that I seem a bit young for this to be the truth, but I’d appreciate if you took it with a grain of salt. I am employed as an agent in a small organization under the jurisdiction of the FBI. Now, can you think of any reason why a technical FBI agent would be standing in your office?” 

“No, I can’t think of any reason at all.” Tohri shrugged innocently, but the way he said that said otherwise. The way he said it made it clear that he knew damn well why he might be in big fucking trouble.

“You’re a terrible liar.” He chuckled darkly, raising one hand to rub at his neck and positioning the other on his hip, “Really, the worst. You reek of guilt, and besides. Even if you won’t admit it, I know what you did. What you’ve been doing for the past eight years.” Yuuya shook his head, “Disgusting, really. You’re disgusting, and I would probably be here to arrest you if I’d found out in any other context. However, this time, it’s personal. So I’m afraid I’m not here to arrest you. Tohri Nishikikouji, I’m here to kill you.”

“I, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” He stammered, backing up against the window, “And even if I did know what you were talking about, perchance, your behavior just proves that you have no appreciation for the arts! I am a pioneer of the greatest art forms in this generation!”

"You broke him"

Upon saying this, Yuuya's voice dropped down again to a tone that would scare just about anybody in the world. But Tohri didn't exactly have time to be scared, no. Because just as soon as those words left Yuuya's mouth, a bullet left his gun; the hand on his hip had pulled it out and fired quickly, hitting him square in the forehead. He toppled backwards into the window behind him, and between his own weight and the momentum transferred to him by the bullet, the glass smashed behind him and sent him falling down to the streets below. If he wasn't killed by the bullet, this would certainly finish the job.

Yuuya, gun still in his hand, walked up to the remnants of the window pane, leaned out, and spat on the remains down on the sidewalk below.


	18. Chapter 18

Yuuya stood there for a moment, contemplating what he had just done. He expected to feel some sort of negative emotion, like he had when he’d snapped at Shuu, but in this case all he felt was a sort of relieved accomplishment. It was somewhat disturbing, that literal murder would clear his head like this, but not that much. After all, it wasn’t like he’d killed anybody innocent and it certainly wasn’t like he’d caused any pain. Both of them. Both of them were quick and simple, and now the world was rid of two of the worst people he’d ever met. No; possibly, those two were entirely the worst people he’d met in his entire life.

And in his line of work, he met a lot of people, not all of them quite morally sound, but it least he’d never had to deal with anybody like Shuu. Anybody like Tohri. The people he’d known who walked the grey area were his comrades, and the minor criminals he apprehended. They never sent him after anybody really bad. They never sent him after somebody who he may potentially need to use lethal force on; even when it came to Shuu, he was only ever told to investigate. Never to act. But he’d acted, boy had he acted.

And he felt just fine. Some sort of strange balance had settled onto him, and he felt no guilt for either of them anymore. A strange calm that had replaced the anger spreading throughout him. Layered under that calm was fear, and worry, and sadness; but he would sort those feelings out as he got to them. He just stood there being calm for a while yet. Shockingly enough, nobody had noticed yet. Nobody happened to see him while he fell, it seemed, and nobody was walking by on the sidewalk outside at this strange hour of the day. Everybody was at school or at work already. He had maybe three hours till people started taking their lunch breaks, and that was when the body would be found. Any luck and he’d already be long gone by the time that happened.

Gun still in one hand, he used the other to pull out his phone and call Hitori. Time to address fear. Why he had Hitori’s number was anybody’s guess, least of all Hitori himself, but the truth was that he’d saved every teacher’s number to his phone just in case of something like this happening. Well, no. Not something like this. But a situation where he’d need to contact a particular teacher. Which he supposed was somewhat like this, but he’d never expected this situation.

“Hello? Who is this?” Hitori’s voice came on the other line, and Yuuya could hear no background noise. He assumed that meant Hitori had stayed in the abandoned classroom with Anghel for him.

“It’s Yuuya Sakazaki.” He responded quietly, pacing back and forth while he talked, “I need just a little bit more help from you, if that’s all right.”

“It’s fine.” Hitori spoke simply, “I had Kazuaki keep an eye on Anghel briefly while I cleaned up the infirmary for you, but I’m back with him now because Kazuaki has class to teach. So you need me to bring him to you, is that right?”

“Precisely.” Yuuya nodded, finally slipping his weapon back into his pocket. The St. Pigeonation’s uniforms were certainly good for this situation; a small gun could easily fit flat in a pocket of the trousers, “And if you can, a rental car? I’ll pay for it, of course, I just need one. I’ll meet you near the udon restaurant, that’s about halfway between the school and where I am right now. Oh, and one more thing…”

“I can do all that, yeah. What else?”

“You said you cleaned up the infirmary for me, thank you. Any chance that you could do the same for this sidewalk here? I believe that if the body was found, the receptionist could easily identify me as the most likely killer.”

“Sakazaki, what exactly have you gotten yourself into? I’ll do it, but what?”

“Oh, I just sort of… shot Tohri Nishikikouji, and he broke a window and ended up on the ground.” He was awfully composed, “Kazuaki was right, by the way, about him being the reason Anghel was acting so differently. I was able to discover some incredibly unsavory things about him, and I must say, judge me if you must, but he deserved in full to die. Even moreso than Dr. Iwamine. For at least eight years, it seems, he had been sexually assualting young artists. But he won’t anymore. Because I killed him.”

“Ugh…” Hitori sounded disgusting, gagging briefly before clearing his throught, “Sorry. It’s just, that’s horrible. That’s absolutely awful. And that happened to Anghel?”

“Yeah.”

“You must have been furious.”

“I was more than furious. As soon as I found out exactly what had happened, I decided that I absolutely had to kill him. There was no way around it. Somebody like that… really doesn’t deserve to have even existed in the first place.”

“I have to say that I’d agree, actually. So I’ll meet you outside the restaurant soon.”

“Thanks, Mr. Uzune.”

\-----

Yuuya arrived at the meeting location just seconds before Hitori did himself, stopping the car then getting out of the driver’s side and walking up to Yuuya, “Anghel’s sitting in the backseat. His stomach’s all bandaged up and he’s awake again, but he won’t say anything.”

“Okay. Thank you.” Yuuya nodded, “I’ll take it from here.”

“Right. I’ll get it all cleaned up for you right away.” Hitori nodded, then turned to walk in the direction Yuuya had just come from.

Yuuya, meanwhile, pulled the door to the backseat open, crawled in, and wrapped his arms around Anghel, holding him close. So close. He buried his face in his hair, gripping his shoulders. Worry and sadness collapsed together into one emotion, and he found himself crying wordlessly for a good moment before he was finally able to say anything at all to his boyfriend.

“Anghel…” When he first tried to speak, all he was able to do was break down sobbing, keeping him so close that he could feel the other’s tears staining his shirt, and as soon as he said his name, Anghel lifted his own hands to grip the back of Yuuya’s shirt, trembling. It was another few minutes before Yuuya could get up the nerve to try speaking again, “I’m so sorry, Anghel. But it’s going to be okay. It is, really. It’ll be just fine. You and me, just the two of us, we’ll go somewhere far away from here. We’ll run away from this town and we’ll go to a place where nobody will hurt you again. I’m not going to let you get hurt again.”

“You killed him, didn’t you…?” Anghel asked, his voice wavering, “You’re braver than I am I… I could have… I could have gone and killed him, but I didn’t. I was a coward, I was so afraid of him. I don’t deserve any title. I don’t deserve to be the Crimson Angel of Judecca. That’s a name for somebody brave.”

“Anghel, you are brave.” Yuuya whispered, trying to hold him even closer, but it wasn’t possible, “You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met, to endure something like that.”

“I didn’t, though. I didn’t even endure it. I wanted to let Dr. Iwamine kill me.” He muttered hopelessly, and Yuuya sighed, kissing the top of his head.

“But you did. You went for all this time, up until today.” He loosened his grip a bit so he could look Anghel in the face, “And I know you couldn’t tell me, but you tried to anyway. You tried to make me notice that something was wrong, you apologized last night… I’m the one who should be apologizing. I should have figured this out sooner, I should have found some way to keep him from hurting you as much as he did.”

“You did nothing wrong…” Anghel sighed, looking down at his knees, “I thought you ended up not being there for me in the hour of reckoning, you know. I thought that, but I was wrong. You really were. This past hour… that, that was really the hour of reckoning. You saved me.”

“So… do you want to run away with me, Crimson Angel?” Yuuya asked softly, “I’m a murderer now. So I have to leave anyway. I won’t force you to come with me, though. I’d like if you would. But you don’t have to.”

“I will.” Anghel nodded, wiping his eyes. He didn’t smile, but at least he didn’t look quite so upset anymore, “This town is… it’s overrun with demon spores. I don’t want to be here anymore. I don’t want to see anything here again, because the memories… the demon spores, they’re just too bad. So let’s go. Let’s find someplace better.”


	19. Chapter 19

Sakuya had, in all his life, never been so spectacularly alone as he now was. That wasn’t to say that he was, in all areas, alone; rather, he had always had some family somewhere. He’d always lived with somebody before, whether it was in the Le Bel house or with his half-brother. He always had, until today.

Today. Particularly, this morning, just as the bell for homeroom rang. He’d hardly even gotten the opportunity to start giving Yuuya a real piece of his mind, an actual expression on just how much he cared, and then he was gone. Just like that. He half-expected it to be some sort of ridiculous melodrama, and when he got home he’d be right there; The goodbye only really felt legitimate when Sakuya arrived home to an empty house. When Yuuya really and truly wasn’t there. When he was… alone.

To have the space to himself, it wasn’t something he enjoyed, or had ever expected to enjoy for that matter. As standoffish as he often was, he very much disliked being alone. So it was that he hardly went ten minutes before using the landline (As his cell phone had been disconnected and he hadn’t gotten around to buying a new plan yet) to call up first Hiyoko, then Ryouta. Both were busy, but he asked if one of them could come over as soon as they were free.

But neither of them could. So it was that, for the duration of that afternoon, Sakuya really was completely on his own. He supposed that he’d have to get used to it, someday. This loneliness. There were a lot of things that he was unfortunately getting used to these days.

So he went to sit down on the couch. There were plenty of things he could have done to pass the time more usefully, of course, but he just didn’t feel like doing any of them. It was some strange feeling in his chest, a particular matter that he wanted to do something, and he could think of things to do, but there was some strange disconnect when it came to wanting to do any of those particular things.

To do nothing at all for several hours on end was… a dreadful waste of time, really. And to waste time that way, would that make him a waste of space? Well, perhaps, if this was a more usual occurrence; but he was sure it would just be this one time, and that he would be back to being a productive member of society soon enough. At least he remembered to eat before going to bed, though he didn’t even go to the trouble of making anything at all; he only had a few potato chips and a nectarine, then went straight to sleep.

\-----

The next day, Sakuya arrived at school only to be met right at the door by both Hiyoko and Ryouta, the latter of which spoke first, "Hey Sakuya. Sorry we couldn't hang out yesterday." He paused before continuing, "And, did something happen? You sounded pretty upset on the phone and I was worrying about you the whole time at work."

"You worried about me?" He asked, sounding rather surprised.

"Of course I did." Ryouta sighed.

"So what is it that happened, Sakuya?" Hiyoko added to the conversation, also sounding concerned.

"Well." He started, then crossed his arms and looked down at the floor, "Yuuya disappeared yesterday. Not quite out of the blue, he did tell me he was going. He said he had to do something, and that he probably wouldn't be coming back. So I was... alone, in the house. A state which I did not much enjoy being in."

"Aww, I'm sorry." Hiyoko apologized, then seemed to realize something, "Hey, wait a minute! Yuuya's gone missing too? That's just too weird to pass off as a coincidence!"

"What do you mean by that?" Sakuya was taken aback by this statement which, to him, seemed entirely out of the blue, "I assure you, it is not like he went the same way as the other students who disappear, going into the infirmary and never coming out..."

"Well, actually, it's strange that you should mention that, because Dr. Iwamine is one of the other people who disappeared! Along with Anghel and the magazine editor Tohri Nishikikouji... That's a total of four missing people! Yuuya was the infirmary aid, and was dating Anghel, who was in turn getting published by Bishikikouji-"

"Nishikikouji." Ryouta corrected her.

"Yeah, what he said. So they were like, this weird chain of connected-ness... it sounds like we've got a real mystery on our hands!" Hiyoko grinned as she supposedly put the puzzle pieces together.

"I'm afraid that you don't." Hitori, who had just entered the building in enough time to hear her last few statements, unfortunately found himself the one to crush Hiyoko's dreams of emulating Nancy Drew, "All you're hearing is rumors. As far as anybody can tell, Mr. Nishikikouji jumped through the window in his office and killed himself; Though they couldn't find the body. Dr. Iwamine has many enemies, so it’s not a surprise he would disappear one of these days. And you did say Yuuya mentioned that he had to do something and wouldn’t be coming back. I can see no mystery here, other than perhaps the question of where Mr. Nishikikouji’s body ended up, which I don’t think you’d be very interested in figuring out.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that you’re right.” Hiyoko shrugged, “So should we just ignore the rumors, then? And everyone will just forget about it eventually?”

“Basically. I mean, that’s what tends to happen at this school. Or maybe the story of this string of disappearances will take the infirmary’s place as one of this school’s mysteries. In any case, I’m sure that your classmates are just fine. As for the missing adults, maybe not, but that’s not the sort of thing you should be worrying about anyway.”

“Okay! Thanks Mr. Uzune.” Hiyoko nodded, “Imagine if you hadn’t told me that! I would have seriously embarked on a totally fruitless investigation!”

“Right. Anyhow, I hope you do well in classes today, all three of you. Maybe even come to math.”


	20. Chapter 20

A week later, Ryouta’s mother died.

It wasn’t in any part unexpected, though. She’d been in the hospital for a month at that point, and Ryouta visited every day that he didn’t have work, only to see her in a state of nearly constant decline. It was a few days before her death that he told her about his relationship with Hiyoko and Sakuya. She told him that they were good kids, and that she was sure they’d all take good care of each other. The way she said it made him realize that she knew. She was aware of the fact that she wasn’t going to recover. And if he didn’t know before this was how she was informing him of the fact that it was inevitable.

He knew that, though. Since she was hospitalized back then, he didn’t have much hope for her recovery. Maybe that was pathetic, but he felt like it ended up helping him deal with it when he got the news, a phone call come in from the hospital in the middle of class. He stepped out into the hallway to take it. When they told him, he wasn’t able to speak for a while, until he whispered ‘thank you for letting me know’ and hung up the phone before sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. But at least he hadn’t been expecting her to make a full recovery, at least he only had his dreads confirmed rather than his hopes crushed.

That didn’t keep him from crying, however, and after a while the teacher came out to see if he was okay. Any other teacher and he would have told the truth, but… he wasn’t about to tell Mr. Nanaki and send him into a crying fit, thus rendering him a useless teacher to the remainder of the class. However, Kazuaki could still tell there was… something wrong, and he told Ryouta that he could go home early if he had to, that he wouldn’t mark him absent and he’d tell the rest of his teachers to do the same. Ryouta just thanked him, stood up, and left.

He thought it almost funny, as he walked home, that no matter how much he knew this was coming, he still felt so incredibly awful. He did everything he could, to try and help her to get better, but in the end he'd failed. He was so shaken up about her death as a standalone point that he didn't even stop to think about another implication; his next of kin, his mother's cousin, this living arrangement would cease to be so temporary, wouldn't it? But that wasn't what was on his mind at the moment, and it wouldn't be until he got home only to see that the man had moved from his usual position in the living room to instead sit in the kitchen, right next to the front door.

The moment Ryouta went inside and noticed, he froze right where he stood. He hoped he could possibly sneak past, but before he could even begin moving, the man spoke, "See, I waited here for you because of what happened today. I figured that as a babysitter, I could get away with never actually seeing you, but that as a legal guardian, I couldn't. Of course, I see now why you hid from me all this time. You were scared, weren't you?"

Ryouta just took a step backwards, nodding, thinking that there was the possible chance he wasn't in as much danger as he thought- "Well, good." -And those thoughts were immediately discarded with the man's words. More of them only helped to drive the point in, "Maybe that'll teach you to stop being such a pervert, right?"

"I told you then and I'll tell you again now, I'm not. It was for my job. For work." Ryouta insisted, but the man still didn't seem to buy it.

"Don't you talk back to me, mister."

"Well what am I supposed to do? Stand here and let you act like you know me better than I know myself?" His response was a slap across the face, and a knee to the gut, "W-what the Hell..."

"Watch your language." He grumbled, then kicked at Ryouta's leg where he'd broken it last time. Seeing as he'd been walking on it all this time without letting it heal, the kick prompted a sharp yelp out of him and he collapsed to the floor in a minor heap. His mother's cousin just stood over him and sneered, "God, if I had a son like you, I'd get sick and die too."

And with that, he walked off, leaving Ryouta on the ground in shock and pain. He stayed there for a good twenty minutes before getting to his feet and wincing the whole way. It was even worse than it had been before, it hurt even more and he needed something. Aspirin. He had to get to the bathroom and take some aspirin, and then he'd be okay. Then the pain would be tolerable. Getting over there was... such a struggle. And there was no way he was about to get upstairs, the downstairs bathroom didn't have a medicine cabinet. He was only able to get out into the hallway before he fell over again, pressing his cheek to the carpet and looking the wall over with dull eyes.

That was when he saw it, right in the corner of the hall, as if it had rolled out of the room and come to rest in a wildly convenient location. A pill bottle; more notably, not just any, but rather a prescription bottle. His mother had been taking some strong painkillers; stronger than he should be taking, probably, and wasn't it illegal to take someone else's prescription anyhow?

He decided against it easily, but only seconds later changed his mind when moving to stand up again shot awful pains through his entire leg. He grimaced, and reached out to grab them. He checked the dosage, two pills. He just took one of them, and swallowed it dry, leaning back against the wall and just hoping this would help.


	21. Chapter 21

It was the small sliver of light peeking through the curtains that first woke Kazuaki. He'd always been particularly sensitive to light, and Hitori wasn't the best at remembering to close the curtains all the way. Not that it mattered too much; Waking up earlier, regardless of the cause, helped Kazuaki to feel a little bit more accomplished. He sat up, brushing his hair out of his face, and just looked at Hitori for a little bit. To watch somebody sleep was usually considered weird or creepy, but there was also the matter to consider that just about everyone Hitori had ever met happened to see him sleeping at some point.

With just a bit of light over Hitori's face, with him sleeping so soundly, he seemed peaceful. Almost peaceful enough that Kazuaki could finally put it out of his mind, what had happened a few months ago. When he was like this, after all, it didn't seem at all like Hitori was that sort of person, that Hitori was... Like that. He understood of course, that it wasn't the worst situation he could have discovered that trait about his boyfriend in. That he did it to help a student who was only standing up for what he believed in. Kazuaki knew that he believed in the greater good.

But, did only believing teach you how to hide bodies? Try as he might, Kazuaki had been entirely unable to shake the thought. Not only hide bodies, but clean up the crime scenes just as much as necessary. Smooth over the hype so nobody thought so hard about looking for the disappeared people. All those skills that would be necessary for somebody who, for example, made a habit of killing people. With that combination of skills, nobody would even be able to tell that someone had been murdered, nobody would have to know. And to do so well and have such an impact on the populace in hiding it that the buzz died down within a month of the incident, for such high-profile people as Tohri Nishikikouji and Shuu Iwamine...

But he didn't want to think about that. Just entertaining the thought for a moment was bringing tears to his eyes. He didn't want to let himself think that Hitori was like that, he didn't want that possibility to haunt his thoughts. Terrible thoughts, though, they were parasites. Easy to get and hard to get rid of. He sighed softly as he leaned over, laying his head down on Hitori's chest and listening to his heartbeat. Maybe if he got up the courage to ask, he'd like the answer. Maybe it would dismiss all his concerns with ease, but then again...

Maybe not.

He sat back up, rubbed his eyes, then stood. He walked barefoot across the room before turning and getting his slippers, then left out to the hallway, in a sort of daze. He needed to stop, stop thinking so much about this, it was only making him upset and he shouldn't dwell on it.

As he started down the stairs, he had his mind taken violently off of his probably irrational worries; Of course, it wasn't exactly the greatest distraction in the universe, being that it didn't free him of worry, but instead turned his worry to another topic. Down in the living room, was Nageki. This early in the morning, with no lights on, except for what looked to Kazuaki to be, at least from the top of the stairs, a pen light. A few steps down, however, and he realized that it was... a lighter? One more step, and it creaked.

Nageki, startled, snapped the lighter closed and threw it across the room, turning quickly to look at Kazuaki, who was concerned, but not altogether involved just yet. Nageki only stayed still like that, however, as Kazuaki stepped slowly closer then turned on the floor lamp next to the couch. The first thing he noticed with the light on, was that Nageki's thumb didn't look particularly... okay. In fact, it looked really dark and, well, Kazuaki could only describe it as unappealing. The bits and pieces fell into place, and he burst out into tears, grabbing Nageki's shoulders and shaking him, "N-Nageki! What were you just doing?? Please tell me you didn't just burn yourself, on purpose!"

"On... purpose?" Nageki responded slowly, blinked, then shrugged, "I guess you could say that. Or, rather, that I didn't. The burn is just a byproduct of the thing that I did do on purpose."

"Why would you do something like that...?" Kazuaki questioned, letting go of Nageki's shoulders to grab his hand and examine his thumb more closely. Or at least, attempt to, through teary eyes.

"Because it's something I can control." Nageki was incredibly calm despite the situation. He always seemed to be, but Kazuaki sort of expected he might waver now of all times, "I don't know if you'll understand, but the thing is that... I really haven't been feeling so great lately. And I can't do much about it. This hurts more, but at least I control when it hurts, and it's a different type of pain. External pain is always more manageable, I think. So I guess it helps me feel better."

"That's horrible!" Kazuaki exclaimed, crossing his arms, "And you're feeling sick again...? You have to let Hitori know! Then you can go to a doctor, and-"

"Don't you dare tell Hitori about this." Nageki stood up and went across the room to get the lighter from where he threw it, before turning back to glare at Kazuaki, "I'm fine. If I'm not, then I will be. If you tell him, he'll just worry, and start treating me like a little kid again. Nothing good can come of letting him know."

Kazuaki shook his head, "Nageki, if you're sick, then..."

"I've felt like this for a month now, and I'm still standing, aren't I?" He raised his eyebrows, staring at Kazuaki for a few minutes, "Besides. You're always talking about how you don't want to cause Hitori too much trouble, right? Making him worry about me would be a whole lot of trouble. Just ignore me, okay? Enjoy yourselves, don't mess up your happiness by fretting over my health." And with that, Nageki was gone upstairs, leaving a conflict rolling for Kazuaki.

Hitori would... Hitori would want to know, wouldn't he? But Nageki wasn't wrong either. It would upset Hitori. It might upset Hitori more, to find out later that Kazuaki knew and didn't tell him, but if Nageki was telling the truth then there was no reason for Hitori to find out later, because Nageki would get better and then it would be a non-issue.

And there were those sneaking thoughts again, invading to come and tell him again that Hitori, who had always been good and kind to him in the past, Hitori who made a point of not lying whenever he could afford to, wasn't trustworthy after all. And he was crying again, crying so much as he curled up on the couch. Crying so much he cried himself back to sleep in the darker room. Asleep, to dream of better things. A dream where he didn't have these conflicts and he didn't have to worry about what to say and what not to say.

A dream of a faraway place, a chair and a lantern, where he sat and warmed himself and had a deep-seated knowledge in his heart that everything would turn out okay, because it would, in a peaceful place like that. Of course, it had to. But real life wasn't like that, and when the hour passed he'd have to wake up, and have to return, and leave behind that warm feeling and the chair he had beside him, waiting for Hitori to join him in that peaceful place.

And in an hour, he woke up. And it was gone, and all his troubles came racing back to him, and he cried just as soon as he woke up.


	22. Chapter 22

Kazuaki was filled with conflict over the entirety of the next few weeks. He felt as if he was trapped between the right decision, and keeping Hitori happy. For that to be the sort of dilemma he was thrown into... it was deeply disturbing. He had thought, once he started making choices, that there would always be only two. That he'd have to choose between helping or harming somebody, or choose between good or bad. But this was on a whole other level from anything he expected or encountered in the past. It was all muddled up, where hurting was good and helping was bad and he knew that...

He knew Hitori would want to know. That was the right choice, though it would hurt him. But the wrong choice, to keep it a secret, would keep Hitori from worrying too much, wouldn't it? And that was another thing Nageki pointed out to him. They spent much more time together when Hitori stopped worrying about Nageki all the time, and, didn't Hitori say that wanting to spend more time together wasn't really selfish? So it wasn't so bad, to be selfish like this, and he was thinking more about Hitori than himself anyway. So he told himself, so he told Nageki. 

And that should have been enough resolve, for him to never waver from his decision, and yet he still did, nearly every moment he had to himself to think. Every other moment was spent worrying about the other question on his mind; the reason for Hitori's high skill level when it came to hiding bodies.

It was to a point where he didn't trust himself not to bring up at least one of those topics while out with Hitori that night. It was a dinner date, just something simple, but unfortunately so it was always one of the forms of date which included more conversation than some. He'd only been able to keep quiet about these pressing issues at home because Nageki had asked him to keep the secret, a trust he was not about to betray while he was anywhere in the same general vicinity. Perhaps it was paranoia to worry so, but he wasn't about to stop either. Paranoia or not, it had served him well in all his life so far.

In any case, he was afraid, but also certain of the inevitability that he'd end up letting one of his worries slip while out at dinner, so he wasn't exactly the most composed when they left the house that evening. It wasn't even when they got to the restaurant that Hitori asked him about it, but rather as soon as they were in the car, "Kazuaki, you seem stressed out. Is there something bothering you?'

"There's ALWAYS something bothering me!" Kazuaki protested, pulling one knee up to his chest in his seat, his lip wobbling.

"You seem more bothered than usual, then." Hitori countered, "And you're protesting too much. Usually you tell me what's wrong right away. So that must mean something is really, seriously bugging you. Or you're just trying to 'not ruin the date' or something, which you don't have to do. Just tell me."

"I..." Kazuaki hesitated, staring out the window for a bit before breaking town in full-blown tears, "I'm sorry Hitori! I just... I can't stop thinking about what happened back then, when you helped Sakazaki, and I..." He sniffed, covering his face, "I don't want to be, I'm trying not to be, but I'm afraid... Why did you... How are you so good at hiding bodies...?"

"Oh." Hitori's voice was suddenly very dark, and he pulled the car over before saying anything out, "So you've been worried about that."

"Uh-huh." Kazuaki nodded, still crying, now hugging both of his knees.

"Now that I think about it, you don't know much of anything at all about my past, do you?" Hitori asked, and Kazuaki just shook his head, "When you met me that day, on that bridge, you didn't know anything about me at all. And yet, you trusted me right off the bat. People... they always expect me to be a liar. I'm not sure why, but they do. Not you, though. Until you saw me do something... bad. It wasn't so bad in the context, but the fact that I knew how to do it must have been off-putting." He shook his head, then sighed, "The truth is, I was involved with some pretty nasty people once. Out of necessity, that is, not choice. I wasn't getting hired anywhere, and they offered me a job. A messy job, but it paid well. They taught me how to do it, too. A group like that, they were only killing nobodies, I only ever had to cover up nobodies. Until the day came that I didn't, until the day when they dropped some rich jerk's body at my feet and ran without so much as a 'Good luck.'" 

"Thats so mean...!" Kazuaki commented.

"Isn't it? I had to think quickly to get out of that situation, so I ended up... very good at it. I just needed to save my own neck, because if they'd found that body, chances are I would have been the scapegoat. And I would have gone to prison. Can you imagine? Me, in a prison?" Hitori shook his head, but then looked over to Kazuaki with a sad look, "So I'm sorry. I wasn't involved with the best of people back then, but I hope you can forgive me for not telling you before. I just... didn't want to scare you, with the knowledge that I was basically in a gang when I was younger. I guess you could call it that, at least. I don't know. Whatever it was, it wasn't good."

"Okay." Kazuaki nodded, wiping his face off, "Thanks for telling me. Sorry I freaked out. I... I don't really want to go out anymore, though. I don't know. I just want to be at home, and sleep."

"Go home and sleep? That's my line, Kazuaki. But I can't say I disagree, anyway. For some reason I really want to go home right now too," He chuckled softly, "I won't keep anything from you in the future, all right? Honesty is a very important part of relationships."

"Yeah..." Kazuaki agreed softly, not looking at him, "Very important."


	23. Chapter 23

Hitori and Kazuaki returned the rental car they'd got to go to the restaurant two towns away first, then set off on the eight minute walk back to their house. Normally Kazuaki would be upset to be out this late (Excluding that one time he'd walked from his apartment to there in the middle of the night) but he wasn't so worried with Hitori there. Hitori, who wasn't a murderer or anything after all. Hitori, who he was now sure he could trust. The thought of telling him about Nageki still ate at his mind, but that was an issue for another time. For now, they just walked in silence, Kazuaki clinging to Hitori's arm.

Partway back, though, Kazuaki broke the silence with a quiet question that was hardly even audible, "Hitori, do you... do you think it's possible for two people to share the same dream?"

"What do you mean by that? Like, a sleeping dream, or a hope for the future?" He somehow managed to catch it, and answer.

"A sleeping dream. I keep having this dream that I... I'm sitting in the middle of the stars, in a chair next to a lantern. And there's another chair there, and I'm waiting for you to come and join me in that other chair. But you never do." He shrugged, looking away. At the sky, the ground, he didn't notice which, he just needed to not look at Hitori after saying something so weird.

"I really don't know if people can share dreams." Hitori shrugged, "Maybe we're supposed to. Maybe when I go to sleep, I should be going there to see you, but... that won't happen. Because I don't dream. You'd think I would, because I sleep so much, but I don't think I've dreamed about anything since I was five years old."

"Oh." Kazuaki frowned, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"Don't apologize, it's fine. I'm not bitter over it or anything. All I ever really had before were nightmares, so I don't exactly feel like I'm missing out on anything." And with that, they arrived back at the house. Hitori opened the door, and they stepped in, but the moment they were in the house something felt... off, and he wasted no time in pointing this out, "Something is wrong."

"Yeah." Kazuaki agreed fearfully, looking around and letting go of Hitori's arm only to hold his hands closer to his own chest, chewing on his bottom lip. There was something about the air, he wasn't quite sure how to describe it, but what he did know was that whatever it was filled him with a deep sense of dread. Being filled with dread wasn't entirely unusual for him, but given that Hitori had noticed it too, he was pretty sure he could trust his gut on this one. However much he might not want to believe it, there was definitely something... not right.

Hitori was standing there, tense, before suddenly snapping around to speak to Kazuaki again, looking more worried than he'd ever remembered seeing him before. He'd looked this worried back then, back when Kazuaki almost killed himself for real, but he'd been too absorbed in the situation to notice. This time, however, he noticed. And he knew exactly what Hitori would say, "Where's Nageki?"

That question wasn't one he wanted an answer for, but rather a statement that only added to the general concern of the evening before Hitori took off, calling for Nageki in a fairly frantic tone and searching for him. Kazuaki still stood by the entrance, noting how ridiculous and embarrassing it would be if Nageki was to respond to that panicked calling, completely fine; But that was the better outcome of the situation, so he couldn't think too much about the negatives when he really was hoping that would end up happening. Hitori was concerned with looking downstairs, so Kazuaki went up to look for Nageki. Check his room, that was probably a good plan. Maybe he just had headphones on, so he couldn't hear Hitori yelling for him. Yeah, Kazuaki was sure that was it.

It had to be it, Nageki had to be okay. When he got to his room and threw the door open, Kazuaki didn't notice he was even there at first, until his eyes fell on the bed. Wasn't this a bit early for Nageki to be going to sleep? But he was just sleeping, that's right. Sleeping. Kazuaki told himself this, wanting to believe it, hoping with all his being that it was the truth but knowing also that it couldn't be. He turned from the door and shouted down to Hitori, shakily, that he found him before stepping further into the room and approaching the bed.

It didn't look like there was any movement, any breathing, but it was only when Kazuaki got right up to him and checked his pulse that his worst fears were confirmed. He only noticed then that he'd been crying since he opened the door, because it got worse. His tears flowed more quickly and he let out a choked sob. Hitori got into the room, and knew as soon as Kazuaki turned around. He didn't even have to see Nageki to realize, and it was like a crushing weight had just been dropped onto his chest from a great height. He blinked a few times, forced himself to keep breathing as he leaned against the doorframe for support.

"He's dead... isn't he...?"


	24. Chapter 24

"I. I think so..." Kazuaki managed to respond, just barely. He was crying so hard that his words came out hardly like words at all, but he got his message across despite that fact.

"You think so??" Hitori's stunned demeanor suddenly shifted to one of a particular intensity as he moved to the bed, pushing Kazuaki aside, "What kind of an answer is that, is he dead or isn't he?" Hitori's tone was some mix between angry, insulting, and afraid. He checked Nageki's pulse himself, hoping maybe that Kazuaki had been mistaken, but...

No. No, No, Kazuaki was not mistaken at all and No was the feeling that shot through Hitori. After all this time, all these years trying so hard to protect Nageki, for something like this to happen, for Nageki to... to die, while he was out of the house, was all of his greatest fears crashing down around him all at once. No. This can't be happening, this just couldn't be right, he was dreaming. That's right, just a dream. That's why Kazuaki mentioned dreams. He did always have nightmares, and this situation certainly qualified. Even as he tried to convince himself that it wasn't real, though, he knew this could be nothing else.

He took a few deep breaths, unfolding, standing up straight. Well, not straight. Not entirely, rather he was trying his best but an odd angle seemed to take itself up in his shoulders, as if he was somehow treading a line between being tense and slouching. He turned to look at Kazuaki, and saw his tearful eyes, the fear and sadness present in his face. He went to wipe his own eyes, only to discover he wasn't crying. This feeling, this shock, it was an entirely different emotion than sadness. It was as if some switch had flipped in his mind, throwing him out of the realm of a normal reaction. To lose Nageki as suddenly as this, he could only describe it as a distinct feeling of trauma.

He'd failed. He'd failed to protect Nageki from the world after all and now he was gone. Not hurt, not dying, but gone. Not a single chance in the world left to save him, a complete and utter failure on Hitori's part. He'd promised, he'd promised that he would always keep Nageki safe, and now that promise was broken. So was he.

"How could this... how could this happen? How did he die...?" Hitori asked, not expecting an answer. Just hoping for reassurance, somehow, that it wasn't his fault even though he was sure if was. Hoping for something from Kazuaki to comfort him, on some level. That wasn't what he got. He got an answer.

"He was... he was sick..." Kazuaki sobbed, bringing his hands up to hide his face and shaking his head.

"That can't be it, if he was sick again he would have told me..." Hitori shook his head, staring at the ground.

"Hitori that... I wasn't saying a theory that's... that's the truth, I don't know if it's how he died but he was sick and he doesn't seem injured so it, it's likely..." Kazuaki spoke hesitantly, backing up against the wall as he divulged the other secret he'd been keeping, turning his gaze to the floor as well and watching his tears fall onto the carpet, holding his arms across his stomach. He felt terrible, shaking his head and squeezing his eyes shut, "I'm sorry Hitori. I'm so, I'm so sorry but he told me not to tell you...!"

There was silence. Nothing but breathing as Kazuaki looked back up and made eye contact with Hitori, who looked steely, who looked... both frightened and frightening, and Kazuaki could tell just from looking at him that he felt betrayed. And Kazuaki only wanted him to understand, that he never wanted to lie to him. But that was an understanding that did not come to pass.

"You... you knew." Hitori muttered, eyebrows pushed together. Kazuaki shrunk under his gaze, and he felt almost like that was a good thing. Kazuaki had lied, kept this important information from him, did what Nageki told him despite knowing (or so Hitori thought) that Nageki had always been the sort to pass up his own problems for the sake of others, "You knew and you didn't tell me." Nageki told him not to tell, but he could have said it anyway. He should have said it anyway, "You kept it a secret, if you'd let me know, then I could have... I could have done something, and then he wouldn't be dead now. Kazuaki, he wouldn't be dead now." He repeated himself, taking short breaths but not quite hyperventilating. He looked like a bottle of coke with mentos dropped into it, building pressure at a rapid rate before he would...

"I'm... I'm so sorry, Hitori, I'm sorry...!"

"Sorry isn't gonna cut it this time, Kazuaki!" ...Explode. He shouted, and Kazuaki ducked past him, making for the door only to have his wrist grabbed as he moved past, then met Hitori's eyes; no, that was wrong. Whoever was here now, it certainly wasn't Hitori anymore. Not the Hitori that Kazuaki knew.

"H-Hitori, please stop!" He sobbed, trying to pull his wrist away, "You're scaring me...!"

"I'm scaring you!?" Hitori questioned harshly, and let go of Kazuaki's wrist, causing him to fall to the floor in his lack of warning to stop pulling away before being let go, "Kazuaki, you lied to me! You lied to me about something important, you kept a secret that you shouldn't have kept, and look at the consequences!"

"I know...!" Kazuaki wailed from the floor, "I know, Hitori! I know that it's my fault Nageki's dead and I know I should have told you! He said it wasn't a big deal, he said not to worry you with it, I never thought it could possibly be this serious...! So I don't know what to say except that I'm sorry, because I am! But there's no apology good enough for how much I messed up this time..." He tried to breathe, but only hiccupped and started crying even worse. 

"God, you should just..." Hitori sneered from above him, looking more terrifying than Kazuaki had ever thought possible; and it only got worse when he crouched down over Kazuaki's chest, kneeling over him, "Shut. Up." And with those words, he wrapped his hands around Kazuaki's throat. But his weight wasn't all in it, just barely. Just enough for Kazuaki to squeak out a few more words.

"H-Hitori... you know that, that y-you were kneeling just like this, the f-first time you said you loved me...?"


	25. Chapter 25

Hitori's grip relaxed, then he lifted his hands from Kazuaki's neck entirely. He just stayed there for a moment, then stood up and turned around, leaning forward against a wall. The brief glimpse of his face Kazuaki saw revealed that the look in his eyes had fallen away to one of grief, horror, not believing what he had seriously been just about to do. Regret. Very intense regret, just as every emotion in this moment was. Intense. Hitori heard Kazuaki stand up slowly, and didn't turn around.

"I think I understand now." Kazuaki was still crying, but his voice didn't sound like he was. It sounded an incredibly simple sort of pathetic, and Hitori realized only then that he wasn't the only one who was shaken by this event; his mind had been clouded in a sort of vindictive trance. Maybe he was more attached to Nageki, but Kazuaki was more fragile to begin with. And he'd just done something much, much worse than the mistake Kazuaki had made. The consequences for that were horrible, true, but it was a mistake. Not what he just did. What he just did was... "I understand. I-I messed up so much, and now you want me dead, Hitori."

"Kazuaki..." He couldn't manage any more words in that moment, but what he was trying to do was apologize. He wanted to say that he was sorry, and that something snapped and he was overwhelmed and he wouldn't have actually done it, that he would have woken up from his haze, but he couldn't speak. He couldn't bring himself to speak a word other than that name, so he only tried to put as much inflection of what he meant into it as he could.

"Yeah, that's it. This really is rock bottom for me, huh? I thought that, before I met you, I'd... I'd always be a loser, that I couldn't get hurt any more than I already was. But now it's even worse. The one person in the world who w-would care if I died... wants me to, now..." He covered a sob with his hands before continuing, "Not that I blame you... I want myself to die for this too. So I will, I'll die. Just don't kill me, please." He took a step towards the door. Hitori wanted to say something, anything, but his tongue wouldn't move. His body wouldn't move at all, "I don't think I could ever be happy, alive here, this world's no good for me. But you still have a chance. So I want you to take that chance, not go to prison for a silly thing like... killing me..."

Kazuaki left the room, and that was when Hitori was finally able to move his legs which had seemed to turn to molasses, all of his self had copped out on him when he most needed to move, to take action, to say anything at all. His reflexes had been above and beyond, back then, so was this balancing the scale? A cruel twist of fate, to give him only the one opportunity to save Kazuaki's life just to have him lose the chance entirely now? The closest he got to a useful speed was the fact that, at least, he saw Kazuaki go downstairs, so he knew which way he was going.

Hitori, in a desperate attempt to reach him despite the fact that he could barely move, paralyzed somehow, as if the amount of adrenaline had crossed some line from "flight or fight" to "you're screwed" and despite the necessity, he found himself near-incapable of any movement. He was hardly even able to stumble into the kitchen before he saw Kazuaki standing there with a glass of what looked, momentarily, like milk. It wasn't milk. It most certainly wasn't milk.

"Oh, Hitori..." Kazuaki noticed him standing there. He was crying still, always with the crying, but he smiled at him, "I... I hope that we can meet each other again someday, and that maybe then you like me again... I don't... I don't hate you. Please stop crying. That's, that's my job."

"Kazuaki, don't do this!" Hitori pushed the words out past his lead tongue, but even as he said them Kazuaki was downing the cup. He was too late, just barely, but too late nonetheless. His tears slid down his cheeks faster now, the full comprehension of the situation finally settling onto him in full. Nageki was dead, and he was about to lose Kazuaki too, "Don't leave me alone! Please, please don't leave me all alone!"

"It's..." Kazuaki coughed, dropping the glass on the ground. It shattered, "It's already done, Hitori, you... you wanted this right...?" He choked out his words, stumbled forward and knocking the still-opened bottle of bleach to the ground, though Hitori managed to catch him as he actually fell to the floor, carelessly kneeling in the growing puddle of bleach. He was only there just long enough for it to cause a slight tingling on the skin of his legs before he moved away, holding Kazuaki's head in his lap and shaking his head.

"No, Kazuaki, I..." He tightened his grip and held back a soft sob of his own, "I don't want this at all! I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking straight at all! I wanted you to be quiet, so I did the first thing I could think of in the moment to make you be quiet, and that was terrible and awful and I don't want to lose you too!" He couldn't keep back the full force of his tears anymore, breaking down sobbing over Kazuaki who was doing just the same.

"Hitori- I... I'm not leaving you a-alone someday I'm gonna see... see you again I know I will... I will..." He coughed more in between words, "Hitori,it hurts, it hurts so much... Hitori..." His words were getting fainter, and his voice sounded crackly and hoarse, a result of his esophagus being, well, chemically burned, "I'm dying..." He whispered weakly, "B-But I'm glad it got to be here, in your arms, I'm glad you don't... hate me..."


	26. Chapter 26

And he was gone. Hitori felt the change, and it was possibly the most unsettling feeling he'd experienced in his life. To be holding onto somebody as they breathed their last breath, to be fully aware of the exact moment when they died, when they were no longer a thing of this world.

Hitori sat there clutching the corpse and sobbing over it for a good half an hour; pathetic? No, no, he didn't think so. Pathetic would be to cry this way over a stranger, but he was mourning some sort of Hell. In the same hour, the two most important people in his life had died. One was entirely unexpected, the most unpleasant surprise to find upon arriving home, and so much of a shock that he found himself... not. Not himself, that is. In a flurry of incomprehensible emotions pulled from the second-worst mistake of his life, he made his worst.

He was no science teacher, but he was educated. He had learned that there were studies done that proved that it was far too easy for emotions to triumph over logic, if not properly prepared, and he had never felt anything quite so horribly scrambling as he did upon discovering Nageki has died. He didn't even know what he was doing.

But he did it. That was an undeniable fact, and for that matter, it was clear that it was because of his action that Kazuaki... 

Really, if he thought about it, he did kill Kazuaki. Maybe he didn't do anything particular to cause him to die, but it was his fault, his fault that he chose to do this. So Hitori had killed him, when it came down to the truth. It was Hitori's fault.

He finally stood up, carefully laying Kazuaki's head down on the kitchen tile, as if it mattered how careful he was with a corpse. To call his body a corpse was so horrible, but that was what it was. Hitori was surrounded by death. There were two corpses in his house. When the bodies were those of people he cared about, it suddenly seemed much more disturbing to even think about them. He half-expected Shuu to show up, as he often did when there were corpses around, but of course that wouldn't happen. Shuu was dead too. Hitori had disposed of the body himself.

He wasn't going to dispose of these bodies.

There was no reason to, no purpose to hiding them at all. The option that he might be suspected of foul play was an option that did not, in any way, worry him.

After taking one last look at the fearful mess left behind, Kazuaki's body, the bleach on the floor, and the thought of Nageki's body upstairs, he knew there was no way he'd ever be going back to this house. No way he'd ever be able to go back to this house. Even years from now, he knew the echos would still remain. So he closed the door, and he started walking. His legs hurt, and his eyes were watering more than they would just from crying, and he was in pain, but he'd be okay. He only touched it for a short amount of time, was only in the room with the vapors for half an hour, and the door was open, so it was getting aired out anyhow. He could have stayed there. Could have died too, but that wasn't what Kazuaki wanted him to do, was it?

Kazuaki wanted him to live. Kazuaki also wanted him not to go to prison, but that was an overestimation of his character. He deserved to serve some time, deserved to receive some sort of tangible punishment for his mistakes aside from this crushing sadness. Because Kazuaki didn't know just how much Hitori had failed to protect those he cared about most. He couldn't fulfill all his wishes. Just the one. Live. At least a little while longer. So he was walking now.

Hiyoko stopped him along the way, however. He wasn't about to question why she was out this late, not too keen at the moment on prying into the lives of his students, but she seemed to have no such qualms, "Mr. Uzune? What are you up to?"

"Oh. I'm going somewhere, that's all." He answered quietly, just wanting to get out of this conversation. He was in no mood for idle chatter.

"Okay... and what's that weird smell?" She questioned, "My Hunter-Gatherer nose misses nothing... and it's a really strong smell, too."

"That would be the bleach." Hitori answered, and before she had a chance to ask him why he would be smelling like bleach, he'd walked too far away from her for the conversation to comfortably continue. He didn't much care if she knew, after all, but he did not want to talk to anybody. He just wanted to get where he was going. The police station, to be precise.

He finally arrived, after what was only really twenty minutes at most but felt like an eternity to him. Carrying guilt was heavier than any cargo, and it made the short distance feel like an awful trek. A trek he'd never make again. He'd go the same distance, perhaps, but he wouldn't ever go to that same location. God, just thinking about anything about the house almost set him off crying again. If somebody met him at this exact moment, well, then they'd surely get the same impression of him as most people got of Kazuaki.

When Kazuaki was alive, that was. He was just across the street from the station now, but he needed to stop. Stop, sit himself down on the ground, and cover his face. He probably looked like some sort of drunkard right now, but he didn't care. The air was somewhat cold, which usually helped to clear his head, but he knew that clearing his head would now and forever hereafter be completely impossible. He couldn't move on, not in his lifetime. Not while he had to go on with the knowledge that he was the one who survived. Out of the three of them, he was surely the least deserving. Especially now.

After another ten minutes trying to calm himself down, and failing, he stood up again. Made his way across the street, opened the door, and walked straight up to the counter, "Hello? I'm here to report a crime."

"What crime?" The officer at the desk questioned, doing something on his computer. Probably pulling up a form to fill up, "And is the criminal named, or unknown?"

"Named. It's me." He was quiet, oh so quiet. He was having a bit of trouble breathing, just a bit. It was worst while he was still inside, and had been getting better since. It wasn't quite based in his emotions, but he couldn't place the reason.

"I'm reporting a murder. I killed Kazuaki Nanaki, and I'm here to turn myself in."


	27. The Waiting Storybook

Once upon a time, long ago, The King was not a king at all.

The King was only a very sad person. 

He spent every single day wondering if he could ever do anything right at all.

He was failing every class he took at college.

He only ever ate takeout food delivered to his apartment  
(And only when he got very, very hungry.)

And when he stopped wondering if he could do anything right  
And knew for certain that he could not,

The King spent every day thinking about death.  
Thinking about dying.  
No, it was…  
The King wanted to die very much back then, didn’t he?

After all, he wasn’t good for anything. That was what he thought.

On ‘The First Day’, The King decided he would die after all,  
And he went out to a bridge,  
And he stood on the edge and he cried.  
(The King, he was always crying back then.)

But then there was somebody behind The King, and he asked,  
“What are you doing, Mr. King?”  
(Except The King had a different name back then. He can’t quite remember what it was.)  
And The King said, “I am going to die.”  
The person said The King should not die,

Because his name was Hitori, and he wanted to help The King.

So The King did not die on that day.

On ‘The Second Day’, which was a very long time from the first day,  
(The King can hardly remember a thing from the time in between.)  
(The King will remember when Hitori comes, though. He knows.)

The King was a bother to Hitori.

He snuck into Hitori’s house the night before because he was afraid,  
And that afternoon he asked Hitori to help him with a task he had been assigned.

But he realized that he was a bother to Hitori, and The King wondered if maybe,  
Hitori might be happier if The King was dead.

So The King put many candies  
(No, they were pills. Medicine.  
Candies only make cavities and stomachaches, not death.)

The King put many pills in his mouth,  
But when he had a glass of water to swallow them,

Hitori stopped The King.

Hitori said that he did not want The King to die, because he loved The King.  
And The King loved Hitori too.  
And The King was happy.

Hitori was too, The King thought.  
But The King was wrong, because,

On ‘The Third Day’, which was a very long time again,  
Somebody died.

That was Nageki, The King knows Nageki.   
Nageki was Hitori’s little brother.  
Not really, but that was the way they were.

Nageki was very sick, and The King knew Nageki was sick  
(He did not know Nageki was very sick.)

(If he knew Nageki was very sick, he would have told Hitori.)

The King did not tell Hitori that Nageki was sick,  
And that was a very big mistake indeed.

Poor Nageki,  
Poor Nageki.

 

When Hitori learned that Nageki had died, he was very angry with The King,

Because The King knew and he did not tell Hitori.

Hitori hurt The King, but he did not kill The King. Hitori would not do that.  
But Hitori wanted The King to die anyway.  
Even if he would not do it himself.  
At least,  
That was what The King thought.

So The King went downstairs and drank a glass full of bleach.

The King remembers what his name was then. It was Kazuaki.

Hitori called Kazuaki’s name.

Hitori did not want Kazuaki to die after all.

Hitori really did love Kazuaki.

But it was too late.

Poor Hitori,  
Poor Hitori.

 

Kazuaki found himself on a train.

He knew he was dead, and he was afraid.

He looked out of the window, and there he saw it.

There was a chair,  
And a little lantern,

And Kazuaki remembered that he had dreamed about those things.

So he jumped off the train and became The King.

He turned the lantern into a wonderful lighthouse, and the chairs became thrones.

Two of them. For The Two Kings. The Sun and The Moon.

Kazuaki and Hitori.

The King made a station, and The King made it very pretty,

And though The King knew it wasn’t a star, he called the place Holiday Star.

And The King was not alone always, because people came when the station was there.

They were dreamers, and The King’s Holiday Star was a very nice dreamland.

So they all said, and The King was happy…  
But not really.

Sometimes people were mean to The King, so he made them leave early.  
They made fun of The King for crying.

And everybody else left when the sun came up.  
The King made no friends.

Until one day, when a certain visitor got off of the train. The King met with him.

The King said, “I know you. You are not dreaming, you are dead.  
Are you Nageki?”

And Nageki said, “Yes, Kazuaki.”

The King said “I am not Kazuaki now. I am The King.”

Nageki said, “Okay, Your Highness” and it sounded a little mean,  
But not really.  
That was how Nageki was.

Then Nageki said, “I was a ghost, but I moved on when Hitori never came home after a year.  
I think that he went to prison for killing you.”

The King laughed.

“That’s silly. Hitori did not kill The King. I do not think he went to prison. I told him not to.”

Then the sun came up, and Nageki was still there. Nageki was not a dreamer!

Nageki did not need to leave!

So The King asked if Nageki would like to stay,  
Because Hitori was coming someday.

And Nageki did.

 

Years passed.

The King woke up every evening and thought to himself,

I am certain. I am certain tonight is the night that Hitori will come.

And every morning when The King went to sleep, he was disappointed.

Hitori did not come.

Hitori has not come.

The King is starting to think Hitori will not come.

Poor King,  
Poor King.


	28. Chapter 28

However the proceedings went, Hitori had no idea. That wasn't to say that he wasn't a part of them, but rather, he ignored absolutely everything to do with his case. His only commentary on it was "I killed him. Do with that what you will." and for his uncooperation, he spent the better part of the time prior to his sentence in a holding cell. If he'd said more about the situation than the fact he killed Kazuaki, they would have let him go home, but he didn't want to go home anyway.

However, because he had turned himself in, and so soon after the incident, and never wavered in the fact that he was the killer, he only received a sentence of twenty years. For all those twenty years, he was alone. Completely and utterly alone. He wasn't in solitary confinement, but he let nobody anywhere near him anyhow. His demeanor made most keep their distance, and if that didn't, his reputation did. All they knew about him there, after all, was that he was a murderer. He had strange scars on his lower legs, and there was always somehow the faint smell of bleach about him.

That made him into some sort of mystery, or rather more like somebody to be quietly feared. And he kept telling himself through those twenty years (minus time off for good behavior, given that he never spoke.) he was alone, that the minute his sentence ended he would go jump off a bridge. Every morning he woke up, and thought out the time.

In 15 years and 12 days, I will jump off a bridge.  
In 11 years and 360 days, I will jump off a bridge.  
In 4 years and 137 days, I will jump off a bridge.

Today, I will jump off a bridge.

His sentence had received a few deductions, which he included. Determining how much time he had left was always simple, given his math background. It wasn't that he would jump off a bridge 20 years from when he was sentenced, his statement differred often and by the end he'd gotten, in small increments, about a year off of his sentence. It was always that as soon as he went back into the real world, he would jump off a bridge. For nineteen years his decision didn't change, and neither did he. He had become, in essence, a robot on the outside. Inside, he grieved. He grieved for all those years and he never got over it. So he was let out.

He could have gotten parole and been out earlier, but where would he go? Not home, that was for sure. When the county penitentiary returned him, he was just dropped off at the local police station. Small town like that, he could find his own way home. But he wouldn't be going home.

He checked the pockets of his pants, which still fit him after all this time. They'd been kept in a room at the police station ever since Hitori had turned himself in there, a fact which he was grateful for. He found his phone, bills long left unpaid. A coupon for ten percent off a suntan at a place which had since gone out of business. A penny pressed into the design of a pigeon, one of those silly things. Kazuaki had given it to him as a 'souvenir' from an English class field trip after they went to see some play. He sighed as he looked at the penny, then closed his hand around it. Gripping it ever so tightly as he walked out to that same bridge he had met Kazuaki on all those years ago. If he wasn't mistaken, this may have even been the same date as that. He appreciated the coincidence.

There was one rather extreme difference, however, between that day and this one.

Hitori, once out on the ledge, didn't hesitate. He'd served his time, in prison and in this world. He'd lived for a while yet, and wasn't that good enough for Kazuaki? He certainly hoped it was. He held the penny to his chest, and stepped forward. 

He didn't feel afraid for even one second. It was as if he wasn't falling at all. This had become his natural state, dying like this. It had become his natural state nineteen years ago.

\-----  
"Sir? Pardon me, but I have to check your ticket." A shadowy conductor questioned him, and he turned away from the window where he was looking out at the stars, "Do you happen to have a planisphere with you? That is the ticket for a full trip."

He checked his pockets. Nothing like that, "No, I don't seem to have one. I only have these." He pulled the coupon and the penny out of his pockets.

"You are dead, but have no planisphere? You must have been a really horrible person when you were alive." The conductor looked puzzled.

"That's right." Hitori shrugged, "So I guess my penance is to be stuck on this train for all eternity, with no stop being mine? That's a shame. I might start getting motion sick after a while."

"Well..." The conductor looked at the items from his pockets, "Both of these together can serve as a ticket, but it's not going to bring you all the way. You'll have to get off at one of the stops along the way."

"I don't need to go the whole way. So that's quite all right." Hitori smiled softly, relieved as the conductor took his 'ticket',  
"I only need to get to Holiday Star."


End file.
